Devil's and Angels
by queenofhearts56778
Summary: If you are marked, you are cursed. There is no removing it. There is no escaping it. No love, no family, no life. Those are the rules. But the most important rule of all, no soulfinders, is about to be torn apart. After all rules are made to be broken.
1. Chapter 1

Once upon a time in a land far far away... ok well it wasn't really all that far away. It's kind of where I am now. And it was not upon a time, it was like 20 years ago.

And that sounds way too fairy tale ish for this, it's slightly more of a horror story. But anyway, let's get this over with.

Years ago a kid went nuts. And when I say nuts I mean full on psycho. Bad. Like explode a freaking mall bad, with a hundred people in it. Not very fun, not cool.

He was a savant, like me, like hundreds of others. When the Savant net took over as it was their people, they noticed something very odd.

A mark was on the boy's chest, about the size of a orange. It was black as though burned into his skin, circular in shape with large swirls around it. It almost looked like the tattoos that people have in weird sci-fi movies where they want to make it look like they are marked by aliens. Now as far as we know, life is not a sci-fi movie. If there are aliens anywhere in this world, we don't know about them yet...

I guess that mark kind of confused them but they kind of went, screw this and threw him in jail. Sucks for him but not really important.

What is important is that mark. Because it wasn't just a poor tattoo choice. It was very important.

Because it popped up again. On a savant that killed his entire family. The exact same mark was branded on him, except across his back.

So after this the idiots over at the Savant Net freaked and started running tests on the two boys. Brutal tests, ones that involved holding them underwater to see how long it took brain cells to die, forcing them to run until they passed out, seeing how long they could take it.

Sick right?

Anyway the conclusion was this mark increased everything. Speed, strength, stamina, and the power of whatever gift they had. Basically there were almost no limits to how strong they could grow. As far as they knew anyway.

And naturally, the savant net was terrified by this so they called for a general roundup of all those with this mark. They created a new division of the net to deal with this new problem and gave them increased powers like the power to kill on sight. As long as someone had that mark, they could be shot without a seconds thought.

They were that terrified. It was considered the Devil's mark and whoever bore it was a minion of hell.

Sounds stupid but it was believed by absolutely every savent. People gave in their brothers and sisters, even sons and daughters. If they bore the mark, they weren't human anymore, they weren't able to feel and they couldn't be allowed to live.

That was the advertising about it, tons of posters urging people to turn them in. These people, with this mark, were shipped off to a research facility. All I'm going to say is the lucky ones were shot in the head the second they arrived.

The unlucky ones survived for months, until a "experiment" finally killed them. Well they say experiment. I say torture but who really cares what I think. After all I'm one of the marked. We get no say in anything not even in the matter of our own life and death.

Evantually the paranoia died down but that division of the Net still exists. And they are still out there, still killing people who are labeled as less than human due to a mark on their skin.

The mark manifests when a savent child is 10 years old. It burns it's way onto their skin, but they will feel it's effects long before the mark actually appears.

It is impossible to remove. You can try to cut it off your skin, burn it off, tattoo yourself over it, none of it works. It will always be there.

It is said that this mark removes you of your ability to feel, robs you of any empathy towards others. People with this mark have no soulfinders because their soul has been so marred it cannot be fixed.

It condemns you to death.

They will find you, you are constantly looking over your shoulder in fear that one day, they will come and you will be dead. You're entire life will be spent either running or hiding. It's basically the worst game of hide and seek ever. The only problem is they are way better at seeking than you are at hiding.

Your family will either be told the truth or told that you got in an accident or committed suicide. Depends on how high up they are in the Net.

But the second that mark appears you are as good as dead. The worst part is that it isn't something you can control.

It can affect you if you've been a world class serial killer or Mother Teresa.

The mark claims its victims, and that's just it. The second it appears you're better off to leg it out of there.

Take off and never look back. Maybe you can out run them. If you can do that, kudos to you.

I was never strong enough to leave. Or maybe I was too strong. The easiest way to describe this is if you are cornered in a dark alley, will you fight or run. People say we are separated into two catagories, fight or flight. I've never been a flight kind of girl though and I guess that's what got me into this mess.

My name is Aria Benedict and I was marked for death at the age of ten. I am 16 years old and I will survive.


	2. Chapter 2

The mark started affecting me at age 4.

My mom kissed me goodbye for my first day of kindergarten and I skipped away, all smiles and two little braids tied with pink ribbons. I remember holding my older brother's hand and hiding behind him when the teacher looked at me.

I remember Will smiling at me, telling me I would be fine. Victor tapping his foot impatiently. I always was a bit of a shy kid but when I saw a little girl with red hair, I instantly went over to play with her. We spent the whole day laughing with each other.

Somehow I missed the odd looks from the other kids. I skipped home, chattering about my new friend Elizabeth. We only got closer as the year wore on but I never saw her inside.

Only ever outside. To my 4 year old brain it didn't matter. Lizzie and I were best friends. It was only when I started talking to this other girl, that I realized something crushing. I can still hear her asking "why do you always play alone? You should come play with us."

It didn't mean much to me than. I stopped playing with Liz and played with the other girls. Slowly Lizzie faded away. I was convinced she had moved schools and I was fairly unconcerned with that.

Now it's all I think about.

I was 7 when the illusion cracked. Up until that point my parents assumed I had no powers. Not even telepathy.

I agreed with them seeing as I hadn't done anything extraordinary like my brothers yet. I heard my brothers in my head but something in me always refused to respond to them.

I was perfectly okay with that, being 7 all I really cared about was Barbies. Sad but true. Grandpa had died a few days earlier and we were going to his funeral. My dress was itchy.

I didn't want to sit still so Uriel volunteered to take me out to the cemetery so I didn't disturb anyone. All I remember was seeing rows and rows of people, all standing around. My head started to feel heavy and I recall asking Uriel why there was so many people.

He looked at me funny and said that no one was around, that it was just us. Fear and panic had swept over me and than I saw Grandpa.

He was yelling at me, screaming at the top of his lungs. I can't remember the words but all I know is that I woke up in a hospital with a startling realization. I could see dead people.

They could talk to me.

That was my gift I guessed. I'm not sure why at that point I didn't tell anyone but I am sure as hell glad I didn't. Because 3 years later I woke up with a burning feeling on my shoulder.

I stumbled into the bathroom and that's when I saw it. Thick, black, ugly. I wore long sleeved shirts for a week as I searched the Internet. Yes I googled it.

Of course there was nothing there. So I stole my father's computer that was on savant networks and searched for it. It wasn't hard for me to find the info I wanted. What the mark was, what it meant for me and exactly what I was facing if I didn't hide it.

I think I watched about 17 videos on how to use concealer. Apparently it was good enough because no one ever questioned why there was a large amount of makeup on my shoulder.

My real scare came when I was 12 and an officer came for dinner. I'd known him for years even called him "uncle ben." Dinner was fine but I had forgotten my math book in the hall.

I slowly creeped down the stairs, trying to be quiet. I slid into the hall, grabbing my math book and made to go back upstairs. But then I heard my name.

"Quite interesting that Aria has no powers. Especially in such a talented family. Don't you think?" "Yes." Came my father's perfectly controlled voice "but I really do not see how it matters to you. She isn't one of your marked girls. She doesn't even have powers as you said. She's practically a human"

I swear to god my heart stopped beating for a minute. They were talking about my mark. Almost unconsciously I moved closer to the doorway pushing against the wall. "We found another one yesterday. He has been hiding but his father caught him in shorts. Called us and well."

He mimed a gunshot and my stomach lurched. This man who I had used to call an uncle, had shot someone.

Someone was dead purely because the had this mark. The man who used to give me dolls.

Did this mean I was truly evil? I didn't feel like the Devil but how are you supposed to feel? "I would prefer you not to talk about that in my house. None of us carry the mark and my children have no need to be scared tonight. Besides you checked every single one of them yourself."

I blinked, and my heart rate increased. He had come over about a week after the mark had burned itself onto me. We went swimming and he stared at me for so long that I felt self conscious and turned away. I didn't realize they were checking for that mark. But for some reason that day I needed something stronger to hide it. So I cut myself over the mark. I completely mutilated my skin, enough that the mark was unrecognizable. That night I woke up with the same burning on my arm and there it was. As black and ugly as before, not changed. "I know I did. Well I better be off, we have a possible kid up in Denver." I heard mutters of goodbyes and handshakes after that but I was already upstairs.

Benefits of the mark, you move fast.

I didn't sleep that night. I was debating running. I was considering staying.

But in the end I had no choice but to stay. If I ran now than they would track me down, they would predict I had heard the conversation and my name would be on the register for possible marked.

I couldn't run but right now staying had seemed impossible. I learned the art of perfectly blending in.

As my brothers became extraordinary I became ordinary. It was just the way I wanted it, if I got into a sport than it was such a possibility of me playing too hard and giving away my secret.

I spent most of my time in my room, a self diagnosed introvert. I became an afterthought in my family, epically when the drama of soulfinders began.

I helped in little ways that were obviously invisible to anyone else but aside from that I stayed in the background. I wasn't really worried about soulfinders until Xav found Crystal. Sweet, sarcastic Crystal who wanted to find me my soulfinder.

Little did she know I had no such thing. I convinced her to do Victor, Will and Uriel first but she was insisting on just doing a little scan for mine.

People like me have no soulfinders. They say the mark poisons our soul so much that it cannot be shared.

So basically that's me. Aria Benedict, hides in her bedroom as much as she can, makes good grades and my goals consist of surviving to senior year.

...

I heard my alarm clock buzz dully. I'm not even sure why I have it. I haven't slept long enough to actually use it in a long time. I swing out of bed and mechanically go through the motions of making it invisible. The complicated routine of covering the mark is second nature to me. After that I pick out a black shirt, Jean shorts and a pair of flip flops.

Second thought, I grab a grey hoodie. I've already applied the makeup which blends seamlessly into my tan arm.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I take inventory. Tan skin, check, Brown eyes that are way to big for my face, check. Freaky shortness compared to my family check. People say I look like my mother which I do but I still hear whispers.

Whispers that my mother had an affair, or that I'm adopted. It's all because of my stupid hair.

My brothers all have varying degrees of brown hair, some lighting to Carmel but I have blonde hair. Light blonde hair.

Mom claims I got it from a distant relative, a recessive gene. But people still talk.

It's just one more thing that drives a border between me and my family. Granted one of those borders is carefully engineered by me but we had problems even before the mark.

Since it was her 8th child, there were some huge complications at my birth. My mom was unconscious for weeks after.

When she finally woke up and came home. It was as if she didn't care about her daughter anymore.

She kind of gave up. I wasn't the priority, I never was. She was depressed and I was the only one that knew it. Dad put her on a pedestal and my brothers only saw the happy mother. But I got good at watching people and even now I can tell, she doesn't know how to act around me. I'm background noise.

Plus only girl in a family of brothers kind of creates quite a separation. I slowly walked downstairs, into the hustle and bustle of the kitchen. As usual, I grabbed a slice of toast and chewed it while navigating around my busy mother and 2 brothers who were stuffing their faces.

Yves drove me and Zed to school with Phee and Sky. The collage wasn't far from the high school so they could drop us off.

Zed and U were closer than Yves and I. Odd because Zed was the popular one at school but he always had a bit of a soft spot for me. Just like Will. Victor and Trace had never really cared much, seeing as they were so much older than me.

Uriel just was basically almost out of the house when I was born so we weren't that close. Will and Zed were easily my favorites.

I slid out of the kitchen into the living room. Mostly because my family was so loud and boisterous, that it made me uncomfortable. Honestly, there were times I hated being a Benedict. I was the odd one, the one who my parents conveniently "forgot" to introduce to people. As far as everyone from the net was concerned, I was untalented. Nothing special and I'm pretty sure my family believed that as well.

"Zed if you don't hurry up, I'm leaving you." Yves threatened. Standing up, I joined the flow of people heading out the door.

I clambered into the car, taking the window seat.

As Sky slid into the car and Phee followed her, talking loudly, I tightened my seat belt.

There was always the obligatory sharing of spit before we actually got going. I just stared out the window, mentally swearing. I hated watching them because it was something I couldn't even imagine having in my life.

Ever.

Authors Note

Hey. Thanks so much for reading my story. So Aria is 1 year and a half younger than Zed. I know right now she's a little boring and insecure but She will get way better. I promise. Anyway please review and all that great stuff.


	3. Chapter 3

"I missed you." "I missed you more." "I missed you most." Sky and Zed finally stopped moaning at each other and the sloppy sounds of kissing filled the air.

Oh my god. I tried to focus on the TV show but the blurry figures moved through their mundane lives and the audio almost seemed not to reach my ear

. My grip tightened on the remote till I could hear the plastic cracking under my fingers.

Yves and Phee were now kissing quite frantically. I heard my parents start in the kitchen. My hand dropped the remote in an effort to control myself, I tried even harder to focus on the TV.

"Get a room all of you." Oops. Ah well I tried. The venom in my voice was even enough to get Sky and Zed to stop which is quite impressive.

Stalking out of the room, out to the porch just made it more dramatic.

I leaned against the rail, my anger still pumping through me. "That was mean." I ignored the voice, for about 5 seconds. Sue me I have a short temper.

"No one cares what you think Lizzie." That's right Elizabeth. The freaking girl was still haunting me.

She actually died when she was 17 but something I learned about ghosts was that they could swap between ages when they were suspended like this.

See most people when they died went on to another life, I didn't really know where they went my guess was heaven or some kind of afterlife but with the spirits I saw, strings were tying them to earth still.

Like a message they needed to deliver or a loved one. Or occasionally it was something about who killed them. But dear old Lizzie had latched herself to me because of why she had died.

"You are just in a mean mood today! You know you should really try calming down. It could help your temper." Lizzie rattled on and on about meditation techniques and I stared out onto our lawn.

"Are you even listening?" "No but by all means keep talking, it creates good background noise." Lizzie rolled her eyes, kicking her legs on the porch seat.

"You are so grouchy today." Spinning to look at the tall red head, I glared at her. "You would be grouchy too if you saw your brothers with their soulfinders so fricken in love and you know you will never ever have that. Ever."

"I know."

"I know you do." See the reason Lizzie was so attached to me was because she had the mark. She had died in a lab years ago. She was still here because she wants revenge and she wants me to do it. "You aren't evil."

It's an argument we have had millions of times. She insists we aren't evil but just special. I say we're evil. After all why would everyone lie?

"Aren't we?" That shuts her up.

Liz only comes around when I let her. I have to give access to her and I can take it away very quickly.

So when I turn, Liz I'd gone and I'm alone. Strange as it sounds she's my only friend. I stood there, all alone, staring at a blade of grass.

The door opened and shut, I still refused to turn around. I knew who it was, I could feel Phoenix's energy. She leaned on the porch beside me.

We were approximately the exact same height but I resembled a mix of Sky and Karla more than I did her. "Want to talk?" "No." She nodded slowly and I returned to staring at the grass.

I could feel her worried eyes on me. "We are going up to Trace and Diamonds place to see them and see Xav and Crystal. We can talk to her than."

"I don't want to talk to Crystal. Seriously Phee I'm fine." My tone was pretty calm so I was kind of proud of myself. But the guilt washed in when I saw her face brighten. "You sure?" I forced a smile on my face "sure." Phee grinned, wrapping her arms around me.

Letting go, she walked towards our front door. "Coming?" "Nah, gonna stay out here." She shrugged, her brown hair swinging as she turned into the house. Phee and I were friends, Sky and I were a little closer but Crystal and I were friendly at most.

Crystal scared me, or at least her gift did. If she ever used it on me, it would ruin absolutely everything I was trying to hide. I wasn't really worried about the rest of my family, my shields were iron clad and almost impossible to break into.

Still I wasn't looking forward to seeing everyone.

It had been a while since we had all gone up to Denver and visited. I missed Will and Uriel the most.

They had always been two of my favorites because no matter what they were doing they had always had time for me when I was younger. I still remember Will trying and failing to put Barbie clothes on. The wind brushed against my face and I shivered.

Turning to go back inside, I cast one last look at the dark forest. There had been so many says when I had wished I could do it. Just take off, go somewhere they would never find me.

Somewhere I was free.

...

Every second counts on the clock that's ticking

Gotta live like we're dying

You only got 86400 seconds in a day to turn it all around not throw it all away

"Aria, Aria, ARIA!" I pulled the headphones out of my ear and looked at Yves.

"What?" He snorted "I've been calling your name for 5 minutes, we're here." Shooting him a glare I hopped out of the open car, looking up at Trace and Diamonds house. It was a very nice house, bright white with a black roof and brick steps up to the front door.

The manicured front lawn was practically glowing with the fresh springtime rain that had been falling for the past week. However it was bright and sunny today. Walking up the steps and flinging the door open was the easy part.

The hard part was how many people there was. Way too many for this house, I decided as I made my way through the crowd.

I waved, hugged and smiled as required for about 20 minutes. Than it was too much, way too many people.

I avoided Crystals wandering gaze and snuck towards the door. I walked outside, sitting down on the steps, letting out a big breath. People had always stressed me out.

I wasn't exactly shy but being around too many people's energies was draining. With my gift I could literally sense people's lives like little sparks of fire. Feeling all of those energies around me for too long, made me feel tired.

Also I was naturally always on high alert. With the mark, I could never be too careful.

"Too many people right?" Will laughed, shutting the door behind him. "That's why I'm out here." "Aww I missed my little antisocial girl."

A genuine laugh slipped out at that. He walked down the steps, brown hair glinting in the sun. "Don't just sit there, it's a beautiful day! Let's go for a walk."

Knowing he wouldn't take no for an answer, I slowly got up. Will jokingly linked arms with me and we started walking. Like all my other brothers he was taller than me by far.

But he randomly started talking about training under Victor, telling the most hilarious stories. I was laughing until my sides hurt. He was right in the middle of a story of a prank he played on Victor when the laugh died in my throat.

Graffitied in black spray paint was the same mark on my arm.

I stopped dead and stared at it. It wasn't big, but there was no mistaking it.

The exact mark that had been on my arm for 6 years, the mark I had fought to keep hidden, was on that building. Almost as though it could feel the other mark it gave a quick pulse of heat.

"Ari? You coming?" Will was looking at me in concern. I nodded quickly making up a lie on the spot.

"Thought I saw someone from school." Even as we walked away, my eyes strayed back to that mark. Whoever did it had to be one of us.

No one else knew what it looked like but none of us could be stupid enough to display it like that.

They must be begging to be killed. But something drew me to that spot. Maybe I just wanted to know I wasn't alone, that actual people like me existed.

Whatever the reason was, something in me longed to go back and I made up my mind. We were staying over, I would sneak out and go see the mark in more detail.


	4. Chapter 4

My heart raced as I slid among the sleeping bodies. Still way too many people for this house.

Effortlessly I made it to the door, easing it shut. The cool night air reached me and I flicked my hood up.

Even through the thick city smog, stars shone brightly, lighting up the sky with little pinpricks of brightness.

Briskly I walked down the stairs quite quickly. The rough brick of the steps gave way to smooth concrete when I made it to the road. I had memorized the way Will and I got to the mark and followed the pattern quickly.

Right.

Left.

Right again and there it is. I crossed the road quickly and stepped over to it, transfixed. It was just plain black spray paint, nothing special but it was important to me. I pulled out my phone quickly, stepping backwards I snapped a picture. If that was found on my phone there would be way too many questions but I needed some kind of reminder. I needed it, I can't even explain it but there was like a pull connecting me there and refusing to let me go.

I couldn't just leave it. I slid my phone away into my pocket and turned away. Making to leave I took a step.

But something hit me with the force of a wrecking ball, knocking me backwards into the alley. I hit the concrete wall gasping, I felt hands close around my neck and I began to kick and struggle. I should've known this was a trap. That it was made to kill us.

"Stop. Don't be an idiot Jon. She's a girl. She's a kid." The hands were moved from my neck and my knees hit the concrete. However I was free and within seconds I was on my feet.

My hood was still up but I could see just enough to see 3 black shapes in hoodies. "She could be a spy." The boy who had been holding onto me said gruffly.

"Now you're being an idiot. No I don't think she's one of them. The question is who is she?"

"Did you make that mark?" The question bursts from my lips, I can't hold it back. The all exchanged looks.

"What if we did?" My body trembles. It's a big risk and I know it. It could lead to my death but I have to know. I need to know if thers others like me. Others who areny ashamed of whay we are but others who are starting to fight back.

"Than you're evil. You're the Devil." I say calmly. I can see them debating whether they have to kill me or not. They think I'm part of the government or at the very least someone who will tell on them.

Bring the graffiti to their attention. I can't deny that I'm considering it. If they have the mark though, then everything changes.

Despite the fact that I know we're evil, something in me still screams that I'm not. I don't know what it is. It might just be a desperate wish, a call into the night, praying that someone is actually there.

I need to meet others like me to see if that voice is right or dead wrong.

"You're evil." I say again my voice shaking "Just like me." And with that I let my hoodie drop.

Underneath I'm wearing a tank top. With no makeup my mark is completely visible, burned across my shoulder.

The black mark almost looks pretty in the moonlight, gleaming against my tan skin. The silence spreads, tense and thick across the 4 of us.

I'm waiting, I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, maybe a gun pointed at my head. Eventually the middle one moves. "Put that back on. It's not safe here." He snaps. His voice. It's unlike anything I've ever heard before, despite the fact that he's yelling at me, it's melodic. Beautiful.

Almost as though possessed, I grab the sweater throwing it back on so it covers the mark. He grabs his sleeve and rolls it up then I see it. The mark. Burned across his forearm. His skin is lighter than mine so it shows clearer, stark black against light skin.

"All of us, evil like you." He laughs. It's not a happy sound. It's harsh and sarcastic but I've never heard anything better in my life.

I feel frozen. I can't help it. I've never seen anyone living with the mark.

I know Lizzie but she's dead so it doesn't count. They start to leave and I'm still frozen. One of them stays, the one who rolled up his sleeve. He pulls a pen out of his pocket quickly "Give me your arm."

"What?" He pulls my arm forward and all I feel is a quick zing as his skin touches mine. It's electric and I feel my mark throb the same way it did when I saw the spray paint. He writes something quickly on my arm.

"It's an address. If you are interested meet us there tomorrow at 1:00 if not wash it off your arm and forget you ever saw it."

"Why should I trust you? I don't even know your name." My eyes meet his or where his eyes should be. His face is obscured by the sweater. But in one motion he knocks the hood off his face. My breath catches in my throat.

He's probably 6 foot at least so he towers over me. He has messy blonde hair that is a shade lighter than mine. His eyes are the most beautiful fixating shade of green. They lock to mine like lazers, unrelenting and I can't look away.

This boy is the definition of hot. Face of an angel, blood of the devil. Now that is true irony. He flashes me a dazzling smile

"Luke."

He smirks then he's gone. Running after his friends. And I'm left in the alley way contemplating exactly how much damage I have done tonight. Exactly how much I'm risking my own life. And how much I want that boy to kiss me.

Authors Note

It has been a while since I updated and I'm super sorry. Busy days lately but I have the next couple chapters written so Yay! Anyway any guesses on who Luke is? Or on what Aria is going to do?


	5. Chapter 5

Sneaking back in was easy. Getting back to sleep was not. My mind was racing with the possibilities. I could turn them in or go see them. Or even scrub off the address, pretend it never happened.

I probably read that address 100 times during that night.

Even as we drove back to Wrickenridge for school on Monday, my mind was turning.

Even if I did go see them, how the hell would I do it. I mean seriously. It's the middle of a school day, I can't exactly walk out of my school without being noticed.

"You can forge your parents signature. Tell them you got a dentist appointment or something." Liz popped up beside me, interrupting my thoughts.

"God damn it Liz." Pulling out my headphones, I rolled forward almost falling off my bed. She shrugged leaning forward from where she sat on the floor.

Whenever I lost control even for a moment, she snuck back in. Lizzie was pretty relentless, she claimed she was drawn to me because of my powerful "aura." Whatever that was.

"Seriously, you can do it. It would be so easy than you can take over the Net." "That seems to be moving a little too fast." She laughed, practically bouncing off the floor.

"Now shut up and go away!" With a slight pop, Elizabeth was gone. I leaned back against my bed and plugged in my headphones.

...

My heart is pounding and I'm breathing fast. She finishes her phone call and looks at me with a welcoming smile.

"What can I do for you sweetheart?" And suddenly my nervousness has vanished. A sweet smile appears on my face, "my mom gave me this note but I totally forgot to give it in this morning. Is it OK if I show you it now?"

She positively beams at me. "Of course honey, not to worry." She pulls the note from my hand and reads it carefully. "Dentist?"

"Yes." I keep smiling. "There you go. Out of classes for this afternoon. Have fun at the dentist."

She gives me another big smile. Huh. I never knew lying was this easy. For some reason I thought it would at least feel wrong. But it doesn't. All I feel is a slight worry, that I'll run into Zed.

He's probably skipping class freely, without Yves yelling at home and tattling. Granted Sky could still yell at him but I know for a fact that this is the only class he doesn't have with Sky. I push open the door, brushing my hair out of my face and the wind hits me.

Sure enough Zed stands outside the school. He and his buddies are clustered around his bike. "Aria?" he calls, I scowl pulling my jacket out of my bag. He jogs over to me.

"Why the hell aren't you in class?"

"I could say the same thing." He rolls his eyes.

"Yeah but I'm never in class. You're a goody two shoes so spill." I bite my lip, debating on how much to tell him.

"It's nothing. Just my spare and I don't feel like hanging around at all. Not today." He ponders that but it never even occurs to him that I'm lying.

Wow I'm good at this. "You ok? You completely blew off Crystal this weekend. She wanted to talk to you." I shrug, a expression of confusion spreads across my face.

"Really, I didn't know that. Oops?" I feign innocence, quite effortlessly. He laughs and turns to go talk to his buddies.

"Go to class." I call at his retreating back, before I spin away. The address he gave me isn't very far away, by car.

Walking it will maybe take me an hour. I don't have an hour. But that's my only option. I still haven't taken a drivers test.

Will keeps claiming that he'll take me but he's always been too busy. Everyone's normally too busy. Mom and Dad have a lot to deal with these days though.

Victor and Dad are hard at work on the new case, Victor is still throwing himself into work. He hasn't found his soulfinder yet and it's killing him.

Will plans to set off to Amsterdam in a couple months. He's making a lot of money, shadowing Victor. He wants to be an agent like him and he's doing pretty well.

Uriel is still just hanging out in the city. He and Tarren visit us a lot actually and always seem completely in love.

Trace and Diamond are happily married and Diamond is expecting. She was still doing her peacekeeping thing up until a few weeks ago when she left on maternity leave.

Trace is still working late though, being a police officer is tough.

Xav is in the middle of medical school in Denver, mostly because Crystal didn't want to move away without meeting her little niece or nephew first. As soon as Xav is done school, they plan on going to New York.

Then with the other happy soulfinders, Phee and Yves started college last year. Both studying different things of course, Yves environmental sciences and Phee literature. They still live at home, since the collage is in Wrickenridge.

Than Zed and Sky are in their senior year and planning to stay here like Yves and Phee. They both want to take music degrees or something to that extent.

Than I'm the baby of the family, still a sophomore in high school. I pull my thin coat tighter around me.

The cool wind still hasn't subsided. It takes less time than I thought it would to get to the big brick building.

I stop and stare at it. It looks non descript, just a factory outlet. I'm just debating whether to knock on the door when it swings open.

My heart rate picks up again, beating so rapidly that everyone around must hear it. But I realize quite quickly that there's no one around. I'm the only human being in sight.

I want to just walk inside but something in me, refuses. Walking into a building alone. Seriously it sounds like a horror movie. This is the part when everyone is screaming at the stupid girl not to walk in.

"Are you coming or not?" It's the boy, the hot one. The vague sunlight glints off his hair as he scowls at me.

I try very hard to control my blush as he looks at me. "I don't know. Am I?" He laughs, tilting his head back and I swear to god my heart stops for a minute. It's one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.

He shrugs, "I think you should but you know, your choice." I appraise him for a minute before walking forward.

A blast of warm air hits me as I step into the building. Only now do I realize how tall he is. He practically towers over me and in response I try to stand on my tip toes for a minute.

It doesn't work and he just grins as he sees me trying. He reaches around me and shuts the door. As he does this, his hand brushes against mine and the sparks flicker.

They only way I can explain it is electric shocks. His eyes meet mine and I know he feels it too. I could stare into his eyes forever, they are the best shade of green ever.

Like springtime.

I finally look away, "Where are your buddies? Hiding?" I still feel his eyes on me almost as if they have a physical weight. "Upstairs. C'mon."


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh my god. You are tiny!" My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. A red haired boy walked towards me, "hey I'm Connor!" I nod slowly taking in how tall he is, Damn.

I really don't want to be the shortest here. He rolls his eyes, "what's you're name?" "Trouble." I say easily and push past him. Honestly I'm pretty sure I don't have control over my mouth anymore. I'm not sure who does but it sounds suspiciously like a female Zed.

The boy, Connor I guess, laughs at that. "Sweet. I like your attitude trouble." I make a face at him but it instantly slides off my face, replaced by amazement.

It's a old abandoned apartment for sure, you can still see some signs of neglect epically on the patchy brick walls. However the majority of the room was beautiful.

White walls intermixed with the brick and the concrete floor was covered by a thick rug in certain parts of the floor. The whole space that I could see was obviously a living room of some sort, with a large television.

3 couches were positioned around it, all in a deep shade of red. A room divider cut across the room, leading to a small kitchen. A dark haired guy was focused on the TV show, barely even acknowledging our existence.

"Dude" Luke steps over to him and pulls him off the couch. Literally right off the couch. "Hey!" He scrambles to his feet, his deep voice echoing through the loft. "Oh…. Hey," He spots me, basically trying to blend in with the wall.

It's seriously not going well for me. Connor walks over to the couch and leans against it. Now they're all staring at me and I can feel my cheeks flush.

It doesn't help that they are all the hottest boys I have ever seen in my life. Even though I'm partial to the blond one. Luke. Oh my god how can even a name be sexy? I'm going crazy.

My mind is going crazy thinking of what to do and I settle for meeting their stare with one of my own. I'm way less intimidating than they are but I see a flash of something almost like respect in the dark haired boy's eyes.

"So Trouble what's your story?" Connor speaks almost too cheerfully. Instantly I peg him as a troublemaker, someone like Xav who counts on flattery and a charming smile to get him out of trouble. The dark haired boy, Jon I'm pretty sure they called him, is the strict one.

The one who's always in control. I can't seem to get a read on Luke though. "Not much to tell really." I say apprehensively. "Gotta be something."

I bite my lip and run a hand through my hair. I've literally done nothing in my life. Except tried to fit in and succeeded. "I used to take gymnastics?" It comes out as a question, I'm so nervous.

"Great so what's your real name?" It comes out of Jon's mouth as a bark of an order. "Aria." I say hesitantly. "Aria what?" "I'd rather not say." Jon casts a disdainful look at his companions.

Connor just shrugs at him, Luke however is stretched out on the couch, eyes half shut like this isn't even happening.

"Why not?" This is the moment I'm worried about, do I tell them who I am.

"Not a good relationship with the parents." I murmur. Technically it isn't a lie but that's not why I'm saying nothing. My parents are government officials, the very people trying to kill us. Not exactly a one way ticket to getting into this group.

Jons frown furrows even more, Connor however just smiles. "So you've got the weird skin ailment?" I have to resist the urge to laugh. "What?" "The mark" Connor rolls his eyes and pulls up his shirt a little. And the mark is burned against his ribs.

Also gives me an opportunity to see his six pack. My gaze briefly flickers to Luke wondering is he's as built as Connor. Jon gestures to his ankle, where the mark is again.

Slowly I pull off my coat and rub at the makeup covering my mark. It's always pretty stubborn to come off but thankfully it rubs off today. I feel odd having it out in the open like this as it almost never is. I almost feel like running back to put my coat back on but I resist the urge.

"Ok. So you think we're evil right?" The scathing tone of Jon's voice is surprising and I return it without even thinking. "Aren't we?" Connor smiles,

"Nah. Not even a little bit. Well I mean I've harbored some homicidal urges to these two but aside from that."

"Shut up Connor!" "Why should I believe you?" The question bursts from me before I can hold it back. Connor and Jon both go to answer when a soft voice interrupts them.

"Because sweetheart, have you ever truly felt evil. Have you ever had any urge to murder and actually done it? Have you ever caused someone who had done nothing to you pain and felt joy?"

It's Luke talking and he's sitting back. His eyes are locked on mine and I'm hanging on his every word. I shake my head slowly.

"Of course you haven't. Because we aren't what they thought we were. Sure maybe two of us were nuts but this mark, it isn't a curse. It's a gift. And they just don't see that, but we are just like them. But more talented, we are special. And so many have been killed for being special. That's what we're trying to do. We are going to stop them killing us purely because of a mark on our skin. The question is are you with us?"

Jon snorts derisively. "How can she be with us? I doubt she can even fight. She's useless a liability." But I'm not paying attention to him. My eyes are locked with Luke's and a feel this odd sort of tremor going through my body.

I want so badly to believe him but I don't know if I can. But if what he's saying is true then, I could save lives.

I could help people, people like me, like us. All the fear is gone from my body. All I feel is a sudden rage burning through me, my hands curl into fists.

"Teach me." I interrupt Jon from his rant on why I should just leave and never come back. "What?"

"You are saying I can't fight, your right. Teach me how." The complete shock on his face is literally so worth it. I feel a thrill of hope, maybe I can do something with my life.

"Is it worth our time?" Luke stands and I stand too, but his is a way more impressive gesture.

"Say we teach you how to fight. What does that do for us?" I cross my arms, for once I feel like this is where I should be and I'm not giving up like that.

"Teach me how to fight and I'll show you how to win." I say finally and I know I've said the right thing when his face breaks into a smile.

"I like her" he announces before flopping back down on the couch. "I do too." Connor throws his thoughts on and he and Luke fist bump.

Then they stare expectantly at Jon. "Fine. But you better be worth it." He snaps at me. 'Don't worry. I will be." I stoop and grab my coat before walking towards the door. "Wait a minute sweetheart." Luke waves something and I realize it's my phone.

"How did you get that? It was in my back pocket." He shrugs and chucks it towards me. I snag out of the air with reflexes I didn't even know I had.

"Be in touch soon." I nod and grab the door handle. Slamming it shut behind me, I lean against it and a laugh bursts from my lips. I cannot believe what I just did.

Some parts of me a panicked, screaming at me but the larger part is overwhelmed by euphoria. Because I can't wait to come back. I can't wait to help and try to make our world a better place.

And I'm going to do it. I am going to make sure no savent child ever has to go through what I've been through. Ever again.

Authors Note

So sorry about the lack of updates. Chemistry is kicking my ass. So the chapters are a little boring right now but it's going to heat up soon. Promise…..


	7. Chapter 7

Two boys spar in the room, slamming into each other like wrecking balls. One nails the other with a right hook which sends him stumbling. Sweeping one leg out from underneath him means that the slightly shorter blonde boy is the winner.

"Damn. I'm pretty sure this is a safety hazard. Do I have to sign release papers?" I say casually turning to Connor. I'm standing in the middle of their makeshift gym thingy.

It's probably about 2 in the morning and I'm clutching a massive cup of coffee. I may or may not of snuck out of my window.

To be perfectly honest though my parents really should have seen this coming when they put my bedroom window right beside a tree.

Not my fault if they gave me the tools to accomplish my goals. Despite the surge of adrenaline from sneaking out for the first time I'm still yawning and I'm in no mood whatsoever to do what appears to be a workout.

"Well we've had a few broken arms and dislocated shoulders but nothing that we can't handle."

"You're kidding right?" I glare at him and he laughs. Probably because I'm about as intimidating as a baby chihuahua. "Connor." He walks into the room.

"Connor! You are kidding?" "Come on Ari." Sighing I abandon my coffee and follow him. "Ari?" "I know. I hate it. You need a better nickname." "What's wrong with Ari?" I say, affronted. My brothers call me Ari all the time.

"Too little girly. You need something cooler." I refrain from mentioning that compared to absolutely everyone in the room, I am a little girl. Emphasis on the little. "Ok. Let's start." Jon and Luke walk over, Luke elbowing Jon in triumph.

"What are we doing?" I feel slightly uncomfortable in a tank top which has my mark on full display to everyone. I'm so used to hiding it that having it out like this is screwing with my brain. Plus it's literally skin tight.

"Running laps." Luke smirks at me and I'm suddenly wishing for my coffee back just do I have something to do other than blush. "Seriously you brought me here just to run laps!"

"Yes." Luke shrugs, completely unabashed. The expression on his face is so condescending that I just want to kick him or punch him or really any kind of physical contact.

I close my eyes tightly trying to resist punching him in his stupid face. His stupid hot face that looks like it's been carved by angels with flashing green eyes and high cheekbones and…..

Ok I need to stop.

We hate Luke. That little obnoxious voice in the back of my head pipes up with its opinion, No we think he's hot. Ever had a mental argument with yourself?

Seriously not fun and you never win. The second my eyes open, I see they've already started running.

It's a slow jog so I keep up easily. I'm not exactly in bad shape but I'm not in as good as shape as they are. Slowly Luke starts to increase his pace and the others follow suit.

"Don't worry if you can't keep up Sweetheart." He shouts sarcastically back at me and something fires in my blood. I extend my legs and push past him until I'm just a step ahead.

He starts moving faster and then were matching each other stride for stride. I can feel our elbows rubbing together, can hear his breathing almost directly in my ear. I don't even realize how fast we're going. All I know I'd I want to beat him so bad.

I'm slowly pulling ahead, even though I'm short, my legs are long for my frame. Also I'm fast. I'm sprinting now, and finally I notice something.

The room is blurring, I can't pick out actual features of the room at all. I slide to a stop, confusion etched on my face.

"Well we've found what you're good at." Connors amused voice slides through the air. "How fast was I…?" Connor shrugs. "About 60 k/hr. Faster than any of us have been able to go."

60\. 60 kilometers an hour. I was going a speed of a car.

"That's impossible." I choke out. Connor smirks, "not with the mark."

…..

"This is so not a good idea." I mutter. I'm standing awkwardly on one of the blue mats, watching Luke standing across from me. Connor and Jon are already fighting across from us.

"Ok let's see what you know." Shifting from foot to foot I stare at him. Honestly right now I'm expecting him to grab a punching bag and make me punch it.

What I don't expect is him to start moving towards me himself. "Wait…." Obviously he doesn't wait. It's Luke so I don't know what I expected. He throws a punch and I duck, every instinct I have goes into overdrive.

Adrenaline is pumping through my veins. My fist connects with his jaw, harder than probably both he and I expected. In return I feel a stinging pain on my side which briefly knocks the wind out of me. I stumble sideways, without time to right myself another fist hits my cheek.

That one doesn't hurt so much but I bet the kick that hit his shoulder did. It might have hurt me more but still. He pushes me backwards and I stumble, sliding to the ground.

He wins but I still feel anger burning through me like in the race. "What the hell was that?" I demand.

"Fighting. You should try it sometime."

"No warning. No practise. Nothing. You knew I hadn't done any of this before." He shrugs, completely unconcerned. He's not even looking at me.

"That was a dick move." I snap. He finally turns to me and his green eyes are no longer peaceful but snap with anger.

"You think that's a dick move. Out there absolutely savant hates our guts and will literally shoot us on sight or hand us over to people who will. Out there, someone attacks when you're unprepared, it's not a dick move, it's reality. That is our reality. And I'm sorry but if you can't handle it than you should probably walk out that door right now, go home because you are useless to us."

He's mere inches away from me and his eyes are stone cold.

"Maybe you'll even do your family a favor and get yourself shot."

"Jerk." I snarl. I can't deny it though. His words have settled in and are destroying any confidence I gained.

Useless. Isn't that what I am to my family? A fake savant girl who's mother hates her and whose father ignores her.

"Pathetic." He answers with a cruel smirk written across his face.

"I hate you."

"Right back at you." Thera so much anger and guilt and sadness and fear all combining in my mind that I can't even handle it right now.

I back away, searching for something to use. He watches in a cold amusement which shatters very quickly when I pick up a dumbbell and throw it at his head. He ducks of course but his face when he straightens out is murderous.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He yells and I ignore him and walk past. Towards the door and my coffee.

"Good thing it didn't hit you. I don't think you can deal with the loss of a few more brain cells."

And with that I exit the room.

…..

Luke's POV

"What the hell is wrong with you?" My anger shoots to the surface, mirroring the look in her eyes.

She wants to kill me as much as I want to kill her. She shoulders past me and I stare at the hole in the wall behind, where a fricken dumbbell hit.

"Good thing it didn't hit you. I don't think you can deal with the loss of a few more brain cells." She snaps and walks out if the room. I pretend not to notice, her hair wafting behind her. Or the way she walks, balanced on her toe. Exactly the way she used to. Their eyes are even almost the exact same shade of brown.

There's a long silence where Jon and Connor are staring at me open-mouthed. I reach off to grab the dumbbell. It's 100 pounds.

Holy crap, she thew 100 pounds at my head. With ease. A slight sense of guilt fills me, I shouldn't have called her useless. If she lift like this, can run like that and fight like that without being trained than who knows what she could be capable of later.

And just because my family.. . Well it doesn't mean hers will. It's still silent until Connor pipes up.

"I ship it." Jon turns to him, completely incredulous.

"Shut up Connor." I say casually. It's just a reflex now. I set the dumbbell down and move to walk out the door.

"Say sorry." Jon says calmly.

"Tell her you love her." Connor cheers but instantly falls quiet at my glare. I walk out of the door and I'm instantly greeted by a scowling girl who looks like she would like nothing better than to rip my head off.

This is going to be fun.

Authors Note

So a little bit of insight into what Luke's thinking. He's being a bit of a Jerk right now but in a few chapters that's all going to change once we find out why. And Connor is totally my favourite right now! Anyway any guess about who I modeled Aria after? A lot of her character comes from another book series… I'd love to see if anyone can guess!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Anger burns through me. Hot and vicious it pumps through my veins like blood. Throwing the weight did absolutely nothing to remove this feeling. Pathetic swims around in my head until I just can't take it anymore. My hands close around the first thing I grab and I whip it at the wall. I only dimly realize what it was when my coffee explodes over the grey surface.

"Crap." The shards of the ceramic mug slide across the rough floor and drops of coffee form pools.

"Damn. Remind me to remove breakable things from your reach next time you get mad." I freeze, my hand stretching out to grab a few shards. "What the hell do you want?" He steps forward, lights reflecting off his blonde hair and part of me wants to just pull him in a big hug. The bigger part of me wants to throttle him and possibly stab him with a glass shard.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." A dry laugh escapes my lips.

"Really and who the hell talked you into that. Bet it was Jon. After all it won't do to have me quit on you guys, not after the fact I know where you guys are. It wouldn't take me long to tell the police where you are." The second I say that, I instantly regret it. His eyes flash at me and his hands around my wrist, pulling me close to him. My body is pressed completely against his and he towers over me. The look on his face is murderous as he leans so close to me that we could be kissing.

However we're not, and it actually feels like he is going to rip my head off. But I stand up straighter and glare at him.

"Don't you even dare. Don't say that because I swear to God I will kill you if you ever say anything like that again." His voice is low and furious, echoing directly into my ear. "You can try." I look him square in the eye. "And what makes you think I won't." He breathes beside my ear and I flinch, turning away. It's true though. Why would he not kill me? I mean absolutely nothing to him. But I don't think he will. It's just a gut feeling.

"Because you are failing at this. Seriously planning a revolution with spray paint and mother fricken graffiti. Who the hell do you think you are, a teen who feels misunderstood. You need me. Now get off me." I shake his hand off and spin away. I know my braid hits him in the face as I stalk away, and honestly I don't care. He might be hot but he's an asshole. I am so done with him.

….

For a few weeks, I actually am. I train at nights with Connor and Jon. He seems to be avoiding me too which makes it a lot easier. Jon is incredibly serious, he keeps Connor and I in line.

He's the second best fighter, strong but not very fast. His gift of technology is very handy. He basically can make whatever tech do whatever he wants.

Basically he's the best hacker I've ever met which is saying something as I'm pretty sure Yves hacked into the Pentagram once. Or maybe he just talked about it. Connor is absolutely nuts. He's hilarious, very sarcastic and funny. He never shuts up unless you scream at him.

To be honest, he isn't the best fighter but his gift makes up for a lot of that. He's a teleporter which basically means he can go anywhere whenever he wants. It's pretty funny watching Jon try to catch him at times. Connor and I have quite quickly became best friends and Jon just tolerates us.

Luke is mostly absent from these events. I still look for him, despite how much I tell myself I hate him.

After all, I do hate him..

Right?

…

"So if x equals y×3 than we can safely input it into this equation and solve…." The teacher drones on, fully unaware he has lost his entire audience.

One girl looks down at her phone and smiles before typing a rapid fire pace. Two boys are competing to get rolled up bits of paper into the garbage.

One kid is sleeping and there's a girl beside who's taking selfies. She tried to get me to take one with her. She still hasn't even looked in my direction all period. That's just the way it works at this school. We have the ruling class, usually my brothers and their jock friends plus cheerleaders.

Everything beneath them are peasants and hardly worth noticing. You have your typical cliques but mostly everyone below ruling class is generally nice to each other. I don't really have any friends. I'm not saying that for pity or anything, it's kinda my choice. I was part of the popular crowd, probably just because of my brothers, in elementary school and than I just dropped it.

I didn't see the point in having a bunch of friends if none of them really had your back. It just seemed stupid.

I felt my phone vibrate on my leg and casting a careful glance at the teacher, I lifted it up. It was an unknown number so I figured it was just a wrong number text. Typing in my pass code, I hit messages. My hand flew into the air even as I read it.

"Yes Aria?"

"Can I be excused? I feel like I'm going to puke." He nodded absently, not exactly the sharpest pencil on the box. It makes you wonder who they're even letting into Teachers College these days.

Grabbing my bag, I scrambled to my feet. The second I got out into the hall,.I leaned against the lockers.

Bringing my phone up to my eyes again, I reread the message. Come now. Jon found something.

…..

Authors Note

So this isn't my best chapter but something is finally happening. And it looks like Luke really screwed up. What do you think Jon found?

Please please review. It really motivates me to keep writing to know people like it. I am open to any constructive criticism anyone has, I'd just like to know what you think.


	9. Chapter 9

"What. What the hell did you find?" I swing into the room, panting.

Throwing my keys down onto the counter, I stalk over to Connor and Jon on the computer. "Hello to you too." My breath catches in my throat. I revolve slowly to see Luke standing leaning against the wall. My eyes sweep over his face, drinking him in. I can't even help it but it's obvious that he's doing the exact same to me.

Self conscious, I flip my hasty braid back and return to staring at Jon. "What happened?" His black eyes meet mine and they're full of triumph.

"Hacked into their server." He spins the computer towards me. It's a email, just a normal Gmail but as I lean closer I see the titles of the emails.

"Whoah." "I know." He smirks at the computer happily.

"So this is."

"Every single bit of information they have on us. Our species really. Every suspect, everyone they've killed and everyone who they're keeping tabs on." I shake my head in wonder.

"This is big right?"

"Huge." I've never seen Connor this quiet. But you can see the sparkle in his eyes, it's a mixture of excitement and fear. I know because it's rushing through my whole body. "And that's not all." Jon clicks onto a different page on the laptop. It's a list of names, like a business page. "Every single person who works with this branch of the Net."

"Shit, really?" I bend closer, I recognize some of the names. I can picture their faces at Christmas parties or gatherings with the Net. I scroll up on the computer screen while the others launch into plans about what to do with this information. But there's a buzzing in my ears.

I have to know. I just have to, if he was ever, if he ever. I scroll up to the top and my hands fall limp on the keyboard.

"Aria?" With great effort, I force my eyes away from the screen.

"Any ideas?" I squeeze my eyes shut. I remember being little and just feeling like I was drowning in a sea of people. Like I had been trampled by a herd of elephants. I learned later that it was called a panic attack. I can still hear My father's voice in my head, telling me to count to ten. Breathe in and breathe out. My eyes snap open and lock onto the first thing I see.

The overwhelmingly green colour of Luke's eyes meet mine and I feel a rush of calmness sliding through me.

"Ok. What do we know is happening soon?" Connor shifts in his swat, a glare sliding over his face.

"Attacking." Luke says calmly. "There's a girl nearby. She's suspected to have the mark." My blood turns to ice. That could've been me.

"They're going to kill her, aren't they?" The way no one meets my gaze, I know I'm speaking the truth.

"Without a trial. Without her having done anything wrong. This is so messed up. What the hell have we done wrong? We have to help."

"We can't." My mouth drops open and I round on them, anger replacing any fear left in my mind.

"You let this happen. Just sitting in here, painting our symbol on the walls. Not minding the fact that we're all dying. This girl. That could've been you. That could've been me. And that girl whoever she is, she needs our help. And we can help her." Connor's already shaking his head.

"It's impossible. They have all the power here. They won't hesitate to kill us. What do we have? We are teenager Ari… What can we do again the government?" All I see as I look around is defeat. It's even written across Luke's face.

The guilt fighting with the desire to stay alive. The fear that haunts everyone of us. "A hell of alot." My voice comes out stronger than I mean it to.

"I told you when you let me in that I would show you how to win. I meant that and I mean this. We may just be kids but we can fight. We are stronger than they are. And we are right. This is unfair and cruel and we can fight this. I don't want to live in a world where I'm hiding my entire life. I want to be able to live, soulfinder or no soulfinder. I want to actually live without fear and I want that for every last one of us. I know it's tough, I know the odds are stacked against us but all throughout history, there have been people who stood up for what they believed in. And I want to be one of those people. And if I die, I want to die fighting for a better world." I stop for a minute, suckling in a breath. I extend my hand to them, realizing how stupid I must look. A 15 year old little girl who is saying she's going to defeat the government.

"So who's with me?" Instantly I feel a hand cover mine. It's Luke's and he stares at me, unflinching.

Connor's next, his hand covering Luke's and Jon's last. And in that moment I feel like we made something. A pact, something unbreakable.

We will never be broken.

I can feel it, the change is coming. We just have to be strong enough to force it. "So what's the plan Boss?" Connor jokes.

"Let's find out all we can about this girl, first." "What are we going to do?" Jon says, and I can see the spark in his eyes. He's just as ready for action as I am.

"We're going to save her life." Connor cheers, and Jon laughs, snapping open the computer. Luke just smiles at me but the look in his eyes in more than enough. It screams we can beat this.

It's almost enough to make me forget the two names I saw on the computer screen. Saul and Victor Benedict.

My father and my older brother are part of the group of the Net who is destroying me and my friends.

My father and my brother want me dead.

Authors Note

Hi guys. I am trying a new update schedule so this kicks it off. I will be updating on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. I hope you like this chapter and please please review.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 11

The shadows fall against the rough brick of the building. The electric lights cast their harsh light onto the pavement, creating the illusion of safety. It's a rough neighborhood, graffiti paints the houses and the pavement is covered in potholes. The blaring of police sirens cut through the air, and the smell of weed is thick in the air. A taller figure cuts it's way across the cracked pavement, to the building.

It breaks into a jog up the steps to the door. Pulling out the keys, the girl let's out a breath of relief. She let's herself into the house, carefully shutting and locking the door behind her. Pity it won't help. Not when we're already in the house. I pull out of the vision Jon's pushing through our heads and I focus.

I'm standing in a crappy excuse for a bedroom. Seriously it's a pile of sheets and a couple pieces of clothing. She must already know they're after her. She doesn't stand a chance on her own, none of us would.

From what we've gathered, 20 agents are coming tonight, just to assassinate this girl. She's 20 years old and her name is Leah Aldridge. Props to her for staying alive this long. From what we can tell, the only reason she's not dead yet is because she's been moving around.

England to France to Canada to Argentina. You name it, she's been there. The noise of footsteps sets me on guard and I sit up on the windowsill. She enters the room, totally focused in her phone.

"Hi." The effect is instantaneous. The second she sees me, she screams. Or try to, my hand is already covering her mouth. "Shut up. I'm not here to kill you." Her eyes, the same shade as mine, stare at me, fear flickering in them.

"I'm going to take off my hand now." I say slowly, "Don't scream." Slowly I remove my hand and she gasps. "Who are you? Why are you here?" I can see why she's scared. Total stranger in her room.

Not too mention I'm kind of dressed like as ninja, it all black and a hoodie which covers my face. "My name is Aria. We don't have much time, you have to pack. Get your stuff, we're getting you outta here." I wheel around and seize a handful of clothes, shoving them into the first bag I see. I continue to hunt, wrinkling my nose at the dirt and grime that cover everything.

"Help." I snap at her, which probably isn't the best solution as she seems pretty shell shocked. And that's when I hear the door slam. I move faster than I ever have and I knock her to the wall. My hand covers her mouth and we stand pressed together. I strain ears to hear footsteps.

The thumping of my heart is dangerously loud, traitorously loud. It's almost like it suspects it's last moments could be approaching. I can feel tears flooding down the girl's face, rolling onto my hand. And still we wait, for the bullet that might end our lives.

My hand creeps into my pocket and removes my knife. Slowly, slowly I click it open. The moonlight glints off the blade as we wait for the agents to enter the room. They're not even trying to be quiet, the footsteps sound like half a dozen elephants are trampling across the hall

. Maybe that's just my ears but I have resist the urge to laugh hysterically. It must be nerves because there is nothing funny about this. And than I hear a thud. Like someone dropping from a ceiling and my entire body tenses.

It's almost time. And then the house is ripped apart by gunshots and yells. After the silence, the din is deafening. I yank her arm so she stumbles after me. The dust hangs in the air and coats my throat when I go to inhale.

"Connor ." I cough out. Get her to Connor. That's my job. Get her out of here. She shrieks, stumbling on the rough carpet. "Come on." I snap. My feet find traction on the floor as we run through the clouds of dust and smoke, the gunshots ringing in my ears. I hear the noise of a gun from close by and instinctively turn, pushing her behind me.

A man stands in front of us, his face obscured, the gun in his hands is not. I don't wait for him to get ready before my fist collides with his stomach. He doubles over wheezing, the gun in his outstretched hand. I seize it, and slam it into his temple. Hard. Enough that he drops like a stone. And now I have a weapon.

Through all the crashing, I miss the shot. But I see the blood on her shoulder. And I hear her scream. Automatically I grab something. It's rough and hard and heavy and I hurl it in the direction of the shot. A dull thud tells me it hit it's mark but I don't care. She hunched in the corner, clutching her arm.

"Connor!" I scream as loud as I can. Her hand reaches out to grab mine and she grips it hard. Tears streak down her face and she's taking shaky breaths.

"It's ok. You're going to be OK." I chant like a mantra. A hand claps on my shoulder, and I shy away, my fist already swinging up. "It's me." Connor gasps. His hair is so covered in dirt that it doesn't even look red anymore.

"Holy Shit." He stares at her shoulder. "Get her out of here." I spin and run into the fray." But you're supposed to come…" Connors voice dies away, covered by bangs and shouts. Dust rains down from the ceiling and walls. I don't feel him coming. I just feel the pain hit my shoulder, as I'm slammed against the wall. Hot breath scalds my face, and I can feel his arm jamming into my windpipe.

"Bitch" he snarls, pulling back his hand to slap me. But it never hits me. Mostly because I've kneed him in the balls. He falls to the ground groaning. Huh. I thought people only did that in movies. I slam my gun into his head, just to knock him out. And than I'm moving, still coughing. I break out into the living room, which is thick with the tangle of bodies.

There a pounding in my ears that has nothing to do with the gunshots. I can barely tell who are my enemies and who are my allies.

It's too dangerous to fire a gun, I might hit my friends. Instead, I duck through the crowd, first time being short is an advantage to me. I aim punches at people I don't recognize but that's about all I can do. Than I see him. Luke. He's fighting off three at once.

He's a great fighter but so are they. They're slowly overwhelming him and he can't stop it. And he doesn't see the man with a gun behind him. I do. I can't run and I can't fight, I stand helpless as they ready the gun.

Than I can't hear anymore. All of the gunshots fall away like nothing. I'm no longer surrounded by people, just sparks of gold light. Mine burns brightly, utterly familiar. Another spark burns as bright as mine, almost pulsing.

The two sparks, mine and the other one, are connected. Pushing towards each other. Branches of the gold stretch in between them, tying the light together. The other sparks aren't as bright. Some barely glow. Almost as if in a daze I feel my hand stretching out in front of me.

Two of the not so bright sparks flicker towards my hand. They are almost reluctant to leave their places yet they cannot resist the pull.

The sparks slide towards mine, slowly, slowly. The tension I feel is incredible, I feel like my body is slowly being ripped apart. It's agonizing and the perfect relief all at the same time. My light envelops the others, they are dissolved within it.

It starts to pulse, throb and then there's a brilliant flash of light and I know it's from mine. It shines like a dying star and the agony in my body is increased by the ten fold.

Yet there's not only pain running through my nerves, there's an incredibly sweet rush of power. The feeling of it numbs my entire body. I can't even explain this feeling. It's like I've been in agony my entire life and just been given a painkiller now. It's the relief of every feeling, just a sense of peace. Peace that's tempered by a sharper emotion.

But right now, I really don't care. I could stay here forever, floating, feeling nothing but power. But I can't. The sharper emotion calls to me. Like a siren call it delves into my mind, something inside screams that I don't belong here.

My hand hovers over the light, the light that has this awful tinge of darkness to it. And I touch the darkness. It hits me like a suckerpunch, all the pain, all the fear of my life.

Every happy thought and every dark one. I'm sucked into my body and I'm still standing in the middle of chaos. Yet there something different.

Because 3 dead bodies lie at my feet and Luke stares at me in amazement. "What the.." He begins when I hear the shot. The shot not aimed at Luke but at me. In almost the exact second, a hand grabs mine pulling me into darkness away from the scene. The bullet cuts a thin line of fire across my shoulder and I cry out.

But we are already being yanked through space, travelling blindly as Connor pulls Luke and I home.

Authors Note

Hi guys. I am trying a new update schedule so this kicks it off. I will be updating on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. I hope you like this chapter and please please review. Also the next chapter will be slightly later but I promise you will like it..


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

We hit the floor of the living room, gasping in the fresh, clear air. I roll onto my side, gasping like a fish out of water.

I can hear other hacking coughs echoing through the room. Slowly I adjust and sit up, ignoring the flash of pain.

Connor and Jon are sitting on the same deep red couch. Luke is warily pushing himself to his feet.

"The girl?" I cough out to Jon. "She's fine. Passed out." My lungs ache, and my side feels like someone is cutting me with a knife but all I feel is tired.

The kind of tired that overwhelms every thought and presses on your brain. "I need to go home." I stumble to my feet. "Wait." Luke states directly at me, his voice as hoarse as mine was.

"How did you do that?" Connor looks confused but I know what he's talking about it. I shrug, too tired to even think about it today. I'm just done. But even just the thought of the men.

The men I killed. They could if had families or wives or people who loved them with all of their hearts and then just nothing.

Eternal nothing.

…

"Wake up Aria!" My mom's voice cuts through my dream of the three men chasing me with their dead eyes glaring. I roll onto my side, yawning.

It takes me a second to realize it, but there's no pain. I lift my shirt tentatively and it's gone. The graze from the bullet is gone and all there is, is a thin red line. That's it. It looks months rather than hours old. What the effing hell.

It takes me zero time to get ready. My thoughts are consumed by finding Jon and asking him. Working this out because this healing isn't natural. Neither is what I did last night. I have no idea how it happened but I'm pretty damn sure I killed those men. My feet thud down the stairs and I'm almost at the door when I get called back. It's by my dad.

My dad who I almost never see. None of us do, he's in the middle of a new case so he and Victor are out most nights. "Aria. We need to talk to everyone all together." It's not a request. I can tell from his tone that it's an order. I nod, and slide into the family room, the healing will have to wait. It takes a while but Eventually everybody is situated in the room. Soulfinders stick together of course.

To my surprise everyone is here. Even Trace and Victor. The room starts feeling incredibly small, filled with so many bodies. "What is it?" Yves asks and Phee nods beside him.

"There's something you kids need to know." My father's deep bass voice fills the room. He always has had the gift of commanding others attention. The fact that he's 6.5 ft helps too. "Years ago, children were born with this mark. It makes them unable to think for themselves. Eventually it modifies their way of thinking so much that they become a danger to others around them. It was more worrisome years ago but there are still many at large today."

He pauses and glances at us. "We fear they are banding together to kill us all and dismantle the Net. They fought us last night and they all got away. I am not telling you this to scare you. I want you to be ready. They are stronger than us and faster. They do not care about anything or anyone. They will kill their entire family without batting an eye because they feel nothing. They are at large and it's only a matter of time before we hunt them down. But until then, look out for each other and if you find anything, tell us immediately."

His eyes search all of our faces. I can't move. I can't breathe. "This is incredibly serious." All around the room, there's only grave faces. Nods.

"I almost got one. I saw it. It killed people with its mind. I almost shot it but it was gone before the bullet hit." Victor snapped. All I hear I'd the anger, the hate. The contempt, so strong they can't even express me as a pronoun.

It.

That's what he called me. Oh god he meant me. My brother almost shot me. My heart is pounding, either from fear or anger. I really can't distinguish between the two emotions anymore.

My fear feeds my anger which in turn feeds my fear of what I am becoming. But there's still no reaction.

No one cares that my brother almost took a life. Because they don't care. It's despair that falls over me because my own family doesn't even care. Sure they don't know it was me, but they don't care. They believe we're evil. They want us dead.

"What if they weren't evil?" It bursts from me before I can hold it back. My eyes seek out my father's, green meets brown and I search desperately for any trace of compassion.

"Aria. I know you always want to see the best in people but sometimes, there's just nothing there to see."

"I know." I am proud of how steady my voice is. "It was a stupid question."

…..

"Jon?" I call, slamming the door behind me. I wrap my arms around myself, like I'm trying to hold my soul together. Which I wish I could because I can feel it fragmenting.

"They went out." Luke walks out of the kitchen, eyes unreadable. However they study me, taking in the dark circles, red eyes, tear streaks.

"You look like crap." I roll my eyes, "Just what every girl wants to hear." He laughs and I realize he looks no better than I do. "Want to talk about it?" he offers and I'm instantly wary. "With you?" My voice comes out more sarcastic than I thought it would.

"Ouch. Yes with me. I'm kind of the only one here and unless you find talking to unconscious people fascinating, I'm your best bet." I still stand awkwardly. He flops down on the couch, not that it's really a flop, it's far too graceful. "C'mon." He pats the couch cushion beside him. Hesitantly, I lower myself so we're sitting side by side.

"Ok. Let's play 20 questions." I frown at him, brushing my hair out of my eyes. He just smiles at me expectantly, and it just makes me want to melt.

"Why do you hate me?" The smile freezes on his face, and slowly melts away. But soon it's replaced by a warm chuckle.

"You have about as much subtlety as an atomic bomb don't you?" I laugh, relaxing back into the couch, which really is very comfy. "I don't hate you." He finally speaks, and it's in a thoughtful tone of voice that I don't interrupt.

Even though I'm dying to be sarcastic, I bite it back and let him ponder. "I really don't. You…. You remind me of someone. Someone I used to know." "Who?" I want to instantly bite my lip, it looks incredibly personal and I just blurted that out. He sighs and I can see that his eyes are list in memory.

"Macy Anderson." The name means absolutely nothing to me but I can tell it's someone special. "She and I, well we were best friends before…" he gestured to the mark that crosses his forearm. I stay silent, letting him work through his own thoughts. It distracts me from mine. "We told each other everything, we were inseparable. People always joked that we would get married." He laughs, caught up in the old happy memories of childhood. "than, it showed up." Luke glares down at the mark on his arm. "I told her about it. It was stupid but I was 10. I wanted help. I wanted someone to confide in, I barely knew what it was. But Macy did. And she was terrified of me after that. She wouldn't talk to me and it was only a matter of time until she turned me in."

His voice stiffens at that part. "I almost died that night but I got away. And I've been on the run ever since." It's more than I thought it was. But I still don't see what it has to do with me.

"I guess I just didn't trust you because you look startlingly like her."

"It must be the hair." I joke half heartedly. Funnily enough, I don't exactly want to be compared to my, actually I don't know what Luke is to me friend I guess, ex best friend who stabbed him in the back. But I guess that's just me.

To his credit, he does laugh but you can tell it's forced. Still he gets points for trying. "Now you owe me two answers" My eyes widen.

"Uh I have to be somewhere." I make to get up but instantly he's rolled on top of me. Our bodies are pressed together so there's absolutely no chance of me getting up. But I can't say I exactly want to. Not when we're in this position.

"Ok, favourite childhood memory!" Rolling my eyes, he's officially way too excited for this. I am struggling to not be affected by him pressing on me but my brain keeps wandering to the space where his lips are crushing against mine. I shake it off, and glare at him.

"Gonna let me up?" He shakes his head, laughing.

"Are you kidding me?" "Answer the questions!" I bite back the snarky comment and focus. Happy childhood memory.

"Well, one time I became a childhood hooker." He narrows his eyes at me, probably trying to discover if I'm joking or not. "So my brother offered me a dollar to kiss this guy and I was like 6 and that was a million dollars back then. So I kissed the guy and got my dollar. Then I found out that the boy had given Zed 3 dollars to kiss me and I got really mad because I wanted more money."

I'm smiling remembering Zeds expression, not being much older than I am. "So we were arguing until I went up to my mom to complain." I'm laughing now, remembering how this panned out. "I can still hear my dad screaming at Zed, 'You cannot sell your sister' at the top of his lungs." I choke out the last part, laughing. He rolls off me laughing too. Laughter fills the open room and it reflects back to me how long it's been since I laughed like this. Slowly we fade into silence but it's not awkward, it's comfortable.

"Second question. What's your last name?" Every muscle in my body freezes as if tensing for impact. An icy rigidity seeks its way through my bones, I can't move. The silence refuses to be shattered and instead grows thicker and colder between the two of us.

"I'm not playing anymore."

"Not the rules." His voice has lost the calmness, the melodic tone to it. It's become more hushed, Wariner as if he's responding to my emotions before I do. "I don't want to play." There's a lump in my throat that I can't get rid of. It makes my voice less harsh.

"Too bad. I told you. Spill." I shake my head, unwilling to bend. There's way too much colliding together in my brain. Fear, what will they do to me if they find out?, and Anger, why the hell did I have to be their daughter?, battle it out in my head. Sending my heart racing and my body shaking. "What is so bad that you can't tell us?"

Why should I trust them? They've shown their hatred of other savant many times. My father is literally hunting us. Guilty by association right? But he told me. He told me about what almost got him killed. Will I become the enemy if I say anything?

"My name is Aria Lauren Benedict. My parents are Saul and Karla Benedict, key players in the Net. My brother Victor Benedict is in the FBI. He was there last night. He's the one who tried to shoot me… and you."

There's a stunned silence after I speak and the only noise is my fingers tapping on the couch. "Wow. And I thought my family was messed up." I glare at him, partly out of confusion the rest slight anger. After all he called my family messed up. Only I get to do that. "Seriously?"

"No. I made it all up. I'm actually from the circus." I deadpan and he laughs. "And that's what you were scared to say?" I nod slowly staring down at my chipped white nail polish. Sky had insisted on doing them a couple nights ago.

They are already chipped and wrecked. Makes me feel bad. She worked so hard to make these nails look good and they are already ruined. "Aria." I raise my head slowly and stare at him. In his eyes you can see every emotion throughout the shifting patterns of green.

"You've already proved yourself as one of us. It doesn't matter where you live or who you are. It only matters what you do now." His words are like drinking a massive cup of hot chocolate after a long day of skiing. "Thanks." A brief surge of daring slides through me and I reach out and slide my hand into his. His is much larger than mine but it feels good. It feels right. Slowly it closes over mine, "No problem." He says softly.

….

"Get out. Shoo. Leave us alone Connor." I push them all out the door of the makeshift hospital room that Jon set up. Ignoring their very loud protests, I click the lock behind them.

"Sorry about that." I turn back to the taller girl who is sitting on a couch, her dark eyes gleaming with curiosity. I feel a slight surge of jealously slide through me. Her hair is a long dark chocolate brown which goes well with her completion which is about the same shade as mine. Her dark eyes suit her lovely face unlike mine.

"No problem." She says softly, pulling her coat around her tighter. "So Leah, you're going to catch a flight to New York tonight right?" She nods and I push the documents Jon forged towards her. It's a fake passport and driver's license plus about 3000 dollars cash. I honestly don't know where they get this money from but at this point I'm seriously grateful.

Leah's really shy but she trusts me as I was with her in the house. I don't really blame her, the boys are scary. "Thanks." She murmurs softly. She turns away and I take that as my cue to leave. My hand just reaches the cold metal if the doorknob when she speaks

"You guys are going out tonight right?" I laugh under my breath so Connor doesn't hear. He's way too excited. "Yeah. I guess, why?" Connor got it into his head that we need to celebrate so he's decided it's a good idea to bring us all to a club. Including the 15 year old girl.

"What are you going to wear?" It's such a normal question for our situation that it throws me for a minute. I wonder what it feels like to be a normal teen who's only concern is dressing herself. Boring I guess. "I don't know." I pause. I've never been a big fashionista. After all I always avoided Crystal and my mother's taste is atrocious. I mostly just picked up simple clothes. "Jean's and a shirt?"

"To a club?" Leah's voice is full of disgust and inwardly I flinch. I've heard that tone far too often. However my voice comes out light and teasing,

"Well what you suggest miss teen vogue?" Leah turns her eyes away from my teasing shyly, "I could help you get ready?" She suggests quietly. Wow. I feel like I haven't hung out with a girl in forever as I barely am at my own house anymore. But looking at the hopeful look on her face, I can't say no. "Let's do it."

….

"NO you can't see yet." A laughing Leah spins the mirror out of my reach. It's the most open I've ever seen her and it makes it all kind of worth it.

Well not really. I've been sitting in this chair for an hour and I'm pretty sure what I'm wearing does not qualify as clothes. "So any crushes?" She wiggles her eyebrows while brandishing a mascara wand. Combined with the question she asked me, it all makes just about the scariest girl I've ever seen.

"What? No?"

"Liar." She teases. "You're totally into Luke." If I had a drink, I'd spit it out all dramatically. But I don't so I'll have to settle for a big eye roll.

"Nah. We're just friends."

"Right" She drawls. "That's a bigger load of bullshit than me telling you I've never had weed. Ok, you're finished." Surprisingly, my face doesn't feel heavy at all. I take a deep breath and turn to face the mirror. And realize it must be a painting because there's no way I look like that.

This girl's face isn't out of balance with her eyes at all. Her eyes glow a rich shade of brown which easily brings out her high cheekbones and full lips. Her hair falls is faint curls down her back which gives the impression that I've just been standing on a windy beach.

She's wearing clothes, clothes I wouldn't dare to wear. Skintight black jeans and a deep red, long sleeved crop top. Skyscraper black heels complete the look. This girl is beyond pretty. There's a spirit in her eyes that can't possibly belong to me.

"Do you like it?" I nod slowly, taking in the creature in front of me.

"Yay!" I take in my reflection one last time. I look dangerous. I look terrifying. I look like a girl who can take on the world and win. And that's exactly what I plan to do.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

The pounding beat shakes the room and sends a thumping through me almost as if it's an electric shock, Kickstart the beating of my heart.

The flashing lights and dull haze of smoke cover the floor which is jam-packed with dancing bodies. It's captivating. The music sucks but the beat compels you to dance. To move. Connor pushes by me, grabbing a shot glass of a clear liquid. He smirks, downing the shot in one gulp. He waves at me, obviously mocking how lost I look. Than he's gone and Jon is following him, pushing their way through the packed bodies.

Honestly it's freaking me out a little. I've never even been to a party so this is a little overkill. I now understand why Will likes going out so much. It feels like if I dance, everything will be OK. As long as I keep dancing. A girl jostled me, giggling and clutching a bottle of vodka. She's wearing even less clothing than I am and a boy is following her. I'm pretty sure I don't need to know what they're going to do. I sate around at the pulsating crowd and very little sticks out. It's all bright colours and fake everything.

Girls wearing nothing. Guys staring at them like their meat. It's actually kind of disgusting. Tiny details stick out to my eyes. A red dress flaring out. The bright pink of a drink. The sparkle of a pair of green eyes gleaming back at mine. Luke sends me a mocking smile and instinctively I stick my tongue out. He laughs and looks away. He looks natural, like he belongs. I so don't. But he's. … Wow I don't even know how old he is. I slip through the crowd, trying to disappear.

I don't really think I like this at all. I feel far too aware of every piece of my body. Maybe I have to drink to enjoy a club. "Hey baby, Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" A hand wraps around my waist and I slap it off. A man stands learning at me. His teeth are a yellowish colour that I associate with smoking. He's probably twice my age, which is still creepy even if I was 18.

"Drink?" He holds up a glass of some clear liquid. I shake my head, remembering all the lectures I got from Will. I can hear his voice now, Never take anything a Stranger gives you.

"C'mon girly. Smile a little more. You'd be much prettier if you smiled." He moves closer. All I can smell is cigarette smoke coming off him in droves. It coats my lungs until the point that I feel faint. Air isn't coming down my throat and I cough. Turning my head, gives him an opportunity to sneak his arms around me.

"Get off me." I try to hack out but my throat isn't working. The lights are blazing and playing tricks on my brain. "There you are! I've been looking for you all night." Luke appears instantly by my side. The man snorts, obviously planning on ignoring the other man but the second he sees all 6 foot tall, muscular frame of Luke, he slides away, murmuring excuses.

I cough again and I can feel the smoke clearing from my lungs. Luke's looking at me strangely. We're close together, almost pressed together. For a second, I almost think he's going say he likes me. But he turns away though and stares at the floor. " Want to dance?"

I used to take ballet classes when I was little. My mother had this idea of everything that made up a perfect daughter. I unfortunately never lived up to any of those expectations. Nothing except ballet stuck. Yet my lessons ended tragically when my teacher suggested my applying to an international school. She thought I was that good.

But sadly, savent can't do that. At least that's what I was told. I was banned from ever dancing again. I'm pretty sure it's not the kind of dancing that Luke means but I loved that moment when you nailed a part of the routine and you just felt this rush. You felt like you could do anything. I miss that feeling.

"Let's go." I grab his hand and pull him forward onto the dance floor. The beat instantly compels me and I start to move. I may be classically trained but I used to have random dance offs with the other girls. I might be rusty but I know how to move to a beat. My hips start to sway and a rush of daring slides through me. I whip my hair back sliding closer to Luke. I can see the competitiveness flashing in his eyes, the one thing we share.

An unwillingness to back down from a challenge.

Slowly I feel his hands slide around my waist, pulling me closer until I'm literally pressed against him. Hesitantly I slide my hands forward until they lie on his chest. He makes a low noise from the back of his throat. I'm not sure if we're dancing anymore. His head is so close to my neck, and his hands trail lines of a burning hot fire on my skin, sinking into my veins and burning me inside out. Is this what being drunk feels like?

This impulsive feeling of being able to do nothing wrong. This rush of colours and feelings that sparkle and burn against the black of my eyelids when I close my eyes. But I haven't had a single drink and it's not alcohol running through my veins, it's something stronger

. Like my own personal brand of heroin. One of his hands cups my cheek, tracing my jawline and tangling into my hair. My hands trail up his shoulders and around his neck. I can feel every line of his body pressed against mine and we just fit. There's a spark of an unfamiliar emotion in his eyes as he leans closer and closer to my lips. And when they finally touch it's like everything and nothing all at once. Everything falls away from me, the only thing that is real and true is the boy with his arms wrapped around me.

It's a hot burning fire that rips through me which pulls me closer towards him, like I'm a drowning person and he's dry land. Like I've been dying every single day of my life and I finally found a remedy. It's not sweet, it's not gentle. It's hot, fire, passion. Everything that makes us similar is reflected in this kiss.

And it keeps going. The seconds refuse to end, hanging, clinging to us as if they can feel what we feel. And finally the moment ends and we're left, gasping for breath, still entwined and wondering exactly how to proceed.

His eyes glow down into mine and I know he feels it too. This is a irreversible change, the minute we kissed. No the minute I walked into that alleyway. And now I have no clue if what to do.

"Want to get out of here?" It sounds like a good a solution as any so slowly taking his hand, I lead him off the dance floor.

…..

"They're going to kill you." I frown at the car we all took to the club. The one Luke is sitting in, glaring at me impatiently. "If they didn't want me to leave, they would have taken the keys."

"If don't think that's how they'll see it." I tug on my hair anxiously. We got some weird looks from our mini make out session in the club and someone told us to get a room but we didn't see the others as we left. And honestly, I don't really care. I'm still buzzed from our kiss.

Screw it. I slide into the shotgun seat and a flash of victory sparks in his eyes. He reverses out of the spot with surprising speed and we are soon racing down the road.

"So how old are you?" I say conversationally, running my fingers on the leather if the car seat. It smells good in here. A mixture of leather and coffee and some other smell I can't identify. He looks at me strangely but continues to drive without answering. I pout and glare out the window. The countryside roars by, dark and mysterious. And I'm hit by another surge of daring. Slowly I roll down the window. A blast of cool air hits us, blowing my hair back. I unbuckle my seatbelt.

"Whoah. What are you doing?" His voice is frantic, rough. "Trying something." I lean towards the windowsill, placing my hands on the ledge.

"Stop." I ignore him.

"Not kidding. Seriously stop!" And with one push I lift myself onto the windowsill so I'm sitting halfway out of the car. The wind knocks me backwards but my grip is strong enough to stop it. It instead twists through my hair, whipping it back and my eyes sting from keeping them open. But it's the most free I've ever felt. I love it. There are no words to describe it.

And I fall back in the car breathless. Luke just shakes his head, silently laughing at me but all anger is gone. I don't even realize I'm staring, memorizing every inch of his face before the engine stops.

"We're here." He swings out if the car and I follow his lead. "You're not planning on murdering me are you?" I stare unwillingly at the dark woods.

"What are you chicken?" He sets off, tall frame silhouetted against the car. That settles it. I will not be chicken. I bite my lip and take off after him.

"Have you ever tried walking in heels" I grunt, skipping astound a tree root.

"No."

"Well I think you might have some more sympathy for me if you had." My feet are killing me but honestly I'm scared to take them off. Who knows what's on this ground. Suddenly I feel arms sweep me up and I'm tucked against Luke's chest.

"See this I like." He laughs and I can feel the vibrations slide through me. "That's because it's little to no effort for you."

"Exactly." It's silent and I half shut my eyes, enjoying the silence.

"We're here." He sets me down gentle and I yank off the the stupid shoes. "Oh." I can't say another word. Because it's so beautiful, I just can't explain it. The moonlight pours like liquid over the trees of the small clearing. The ground is soft pine needles and it breaks out into a beautiful lake. Fireflies glow around the edges and a high cliff, covered in ivy is the other side of the lake.

"I love it." Luke smiles at me and I catch my breath. He's dazzling in the moonlight, hair glowing and eyes shining even brighter.

"Yeah. It's my secret spot. Not even the guys know about it." A wave of an emotion I've never felt hits me and I slide my hand into his.

"Dance with me."

"We have no music." I pull him forward and start to move. I'm not sure what I'm dancing too but it's amazing. It's a beat that I've never heard before but I love it. I spin out, laughing and then it hits me. This is what love feels like. He pulls me closer, swaying to a beat only we can hear.

"I'm 15." He breathes into my ear. And I look at him, eyebrow raised. He doesn't look it. "Yeah I know. Tall for my age." I shake my head, that's the least of it.

"Well I'm almost 16." That catches my attention. "Wait. When's your birthday?" "June 4th. Why?" I pull away, staring at him.

"Aria? What's wrong?"

"Serious?" I gasp, I feel trembles all over. I don't know whether it's fear or anticipation. He nods, staring at me in concern. "Because my birthday is June 6th. And I'm 15 too." I can see the realization dawn on his face. He sweeps my hair away with a featherlight touch on my jawline and stares deep into my eyes.

Please let it be true. Please God if you even give a damn about us, the spawn of Devil's. Please. _Aria._ His voice echoes into my head and it's fireworks beyond belief. _It's you_. And his lips are crashing one mine. And it's the best feeling in the world.

…..

Not even the collision of a million stars could be more beautiful than this. As two, destined for death, break the rules. A bright glow envelops them, and they're sparks. Burning brighter than any of the other sparks. A way to cause death and a way to create love as the two sparks intertwine and glow together.

Authors Note

So sorry this is late but I'm about to get off school for winter holidays so I'll update quicker


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"This is impossible." I toss my hair in frustration. I swear to god we've said the exact same things a thousand times. The smooth red velvet of the couch slips over my fingertips like a waterfall.

Jon paces in anger and I'm pretty sure slight jealousy. I can see that he wants to believe it but he can't. I'm not sure if I can either. Connor is just sitting there, staring at the two of us.

Our entwined hands no doubt. I can't even help it. All I want to do is touch him and never stop. Oh my god I did not just think that. What the hell is wrong with me? I do not get like this. I am not romantic. At all.

"I still ship it." It breaks the ice. I start to laugh and Luke joins in.

"What do you mean still?" Connor smiles, and I can see his genuine joy for us. He's so much like Will. Go with the flow, calm and easygoing. The thought of my older brother sends a slight sting of guilt through me. I'm supposed to be at a sleepover right now. I hate this lying. I hate it so much, I feel like I'm two different people.

I've felt like that for years but now that I actually get to be who I want to be, I hate having to pretend anymore. But I can't reveal this to my family. I'm scared of them. I'm literally shaking every time I go home because It's just too much.

Knowing that they want to kill me, it hurts so much. I jump out of my skin every time someone even taps me on the shoulder. "Actually I told Luke that I shipped you two when you chucked the weight at his head." Laughing I turn to look at Luke. He's gorgeous and annoying and frustrating and beautiful. And mine.

Mine forever. And just knowing that is enough to make me smile. Smile and forget about my family. And that's the dangerous part. I forget when I'm here about my family, about how they're against us. I forget that for the majority of my life I thought we were evil. Because there's no way this perfect boy in front of me, one who looks like an angel, is the devil.

"Fine." I raise my eyebrow at Jon, who continues to pace.

"Fine." He repeats, "You're soulfinders. But if you hurt her, I'll kick your ass."

"Whoah wait! If I hurt her?" He says in mock anger, "I think it's far more likely for her to hurt me. Total double standard."

"Yeah but we like her better." Luke throws his hands in the air laughing.

"Thanks Jon. " I smile at him, and he smiles back. "Isn't that kind of a Dad line?"

"I figured someone ought to say it." Jon slides over to Connors chair, pulling him out of it.

"We'll leave you two alone!" Connor shakes his head, in complete outrage.

"No we won't."

"Yes we will." Jon pulls him backwards, and the two scramble out of the room. "Use protection!" Connor screams after him and I instantly blush. While laughing of course, Connor has that effect on people. He can make you the subject of the joke and instead of feeling embarrassed or alone, all you want to do is laugh along.

"That went well." I say cheerfully.

"Yeah, for you." He mutters sarcastically. "I'm getting my ass kicked."

"We didn't finish our game!" I announce, quite happy to keep playing. I want to know more about him. After all I'm supposed to spend my life with this idiot. He sighs, settling into the couch. I can almost see him roll his eyes.

"Favourite colour?"

"You suck at this game." I accuse.

"How the hell do you suck at 20 questions?"

"You ask lame questions like that!" We're glaring at each other, inches apart. "Fine. If you could be any other person for a day, who would you be?" I bite my lip, slowly going through celebrity's in my mind. Who would be the best to be? "No thinking about it! Whoever comes into your head first." "My mom." Why the hell did I say that? But I know it's true. I would want to be my mother for a day if I could. I want to know what it would feel like to be valued. Valued for your power and just for who you are instead of being background noise. I want to know what it feels like to actually live a day without the fear of the mark pressing down on you.

Luke's eyes watch my face, like he's memorizing it. But he doesn't push me to talk. He waits for me to work through it. "Ok." His voice is softer than velvet, quiet in the still air, despite the fact that we can hear Connor and Jon's yells from the training room. "Favourite song?" I ask.

"And you said favourite colour was lame!".

"That's because it is. Now talk." Exhaling exasperatedly he says

"I'm not sure. I like a lot of older songs." I shrug, staring at my fingers. " Now you. What are we going to ask you?." He muses out loud "Worst childhood memory?" I don't really want to talk about my childhood but I nod slowly. Worst childhood memory… I sift through them. There was the day I got the mark. The day I quit dance lessons. The day I got told I looked too slutty wearing a dress. I was 13, I didn't even know what slut meant. No, not the worst. One jumps out at me and I start to talk. "So we were out in the city for a while when I was 12. And we went to a McDonald's for food and I started to feel really really sick." I pause, this needs more explanation than I thought. " when I was little I used to get, I guess panic attacks? I'm not sure what they were but it wasn't good. I'd freak out and I couldn't breathe and.." I shutter. I haven't had one in years.

Actually the one I'm talking about might have been my last one. "Anyway I started to feel really sick. See that morning I had snuck onto my brothers laptop, and I had found out that there had been a shooting yesterday of 5 kids with the mark. I was terrified and angry and guilty and just so confused. I didn't understand why it was happening, why I got to live and they didn't. So I left to go to the washroom, to try to calm down."

I can remember trying to control my breathing by pressing my head against the cold walls. Throwing up as I picture the bullet hitting kids. Kids younger than I was. All I could see was the children, terrified faces and than the one harsh noise that would be the last thing they would ever hear. Never seeing their families again.

"I was probably in their for 30 minutes. Maybe longer, but it doesn't really matter. Because they left. Either way my family wasn't there when I walked out. Their car wasn't in the parking lot. And they weren't in the restaurant." Luke sharply inhales and that's the first time that I remember he's beside me. His hand slides into my own and I squeeze it.

"I didn't know their cellphone numbers and I didn't have any money. So I sat down and waited. I remember it started to rain. And I got all these weird looks from people but I still sat and waited. I have no idea how long I was there for but I knew it was a long time. I was freezing and starving and soaking wet. And finally, my oldest brothers car pulled into the parking lot. I got in and I didn't say a word to him the whole way home. I don't think I said a word to anyone when I got home. I just walked up to my room and stayed there. And the sad part is no one tried to get me out. They just left me yup there. They were more comfortable with pretending I didn't exist than an actual confrontation." I am not going to cry. I am not. I do not cry

. "I'm so sorry" He whispers into my ear, pressing his lips just below.

"If it helps they're idiots." I stifle a laugh, turning so I'm facing him.

"Why?" I breathe out, not wanting to break the silence.

"Because they let you go. The whole time you've been here, they've been letting you slip away. And trust me, we're never going to let you do that." His eyes darken a fraction and I lean closer, basking in his warmth.

"I'm never going to let you go. I promise." And just like that, our lips are connected. I'm not sure who kissed who but it doesn't matter. All I can feel is Luke, overwhelming everyone of my senses. Making me feel alive.

"Aria! Luke! Get in here now!" We break apart gasping for breath.

"Dibs." I say calmly once I've recovered.

"On what? Killing Connor because I'm sorry but there's no fricken way that I don't get to at least help…" He cuts off when he sees me shaking my head.

"Well what then?" Smiling I lean closer until we're pressed together. "Ari?"

"On this." I whisper against his skin. "On your kiss, on your lips, on your time, on your hand, on your heart. All mine." And with that, I sit up. Swinging my legs onto the floor and hopping up.

"Let's go see what they want!" He groans, "I'd really rather not." I stomp my foot. Than stop. I probably look like a petulant 4 year old. "Oh C'mon." I grab his hand and pull. And pull. Honestly nothing's happening which is more than a little frustrating. It's not my fault I'm small. It's just unfair that he's fricken 6 foot.

What is with woman in our family being short. I mean seriously, Crystals the only one who's broken the curve. "This is unfair." I announce, quite dramatically. He chuckles, obviously mocking me and the fact that I can't get him up. "Maybe I can convince you a different way?" His eyebrows instantly raise. I slide forward so we're in a very similar position to when we were kissing.

"And now guess what I'm going to do?" I make my voice sound husky as I run my hands up his chest. He shakes his head and I can feel his breathing quicken.

"Flip the couch!" Quickly I pull the couch back using telekinesis. Flipping it forward sends Luke flying forward and off the couch. I've been practising with Jon. Apparently I'm a fast learner.

"Damn. Isn't it a little early in the relationship to be lying to each other?" He gets to his feet gingerly, and I feel a slight pang of guilt.

"See that's why we're going to be a phenomenal couple!" He laughs, leaning over to flip the couch back to its original position. "Yes we are." Smiling, I spin away. My bare feet collide with the wood floor as I skip down the hallway. He rushes after me and it occurs to me in one big rush, exactly how at home I am here.

Because right here and right now, nothing could hurt me. And it's all because of these 3 boys who have made me feel more like me than I have in years. And it's an amazing feeling.

Authors Note

Filler chapter for right now. Just some fluff between Luke and Aria. The song that I used a quote from when Luke is talking to Aria is "Dibs" by Kelsea Ballerini. It's a really nice song and I thought that it was cute.

Anyway next update may be a little late but I promise that it will happen. Things will start to heat up next chapter. Honestly, I have two endings to this story so I'm deciding between those.

So I need to think about that but we aren't close to the end yet so I've got time. Anyway have a Merry Christmas (if you celebrate it) everybody and Happy Holidays


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I collapse in frustration, hitting my fists against the floor. "I can't do it." "You did it there." I roll my eyes at his commentary, quite useless.

"Well I can't use it if I don't know what it is." It's just Luke and I. And we're trying to tap into whatever let me kill those people. And I don't even know I'd I want to do this. If I want to know what it meant. But I agree with the others that it's better for me to be able to control it.

After all it would be particularly bad if I lost control of that kind of ability. "Recap." Seriously. Again! I take a deep calming breath to keep from ripping his throat out. Oddly enough, the fact that we have a deep bond of love and all that crap, doesn't mean that I don't want to kill him.

"I see dead people." He sighs and raises his eyebrows. He knows I'm being deliberately unhelpful.

"Fine. I can stop them from coming but I've never tried calling them. One seems to be particularly stuck to me and I have no idea why." He paces the floor of the training room, deep in thought. When he thinks he always has one hand curled into a fist like he can fight his way into understanding a concept.

"Try calling her." I feel instantly stupid but I give it a try.

"Liz!" I call hopefully. I smile hopefully, "I tried?" Luke shakes his head at me and I kick the ground in anger. Honestly I'm just fed up of trying.

"Try harder Aria."

"Oh my god that never occurred to me!" We glare at each other, each annoyed with the other and fed up with being here. "C'mon try." Luke stares at me, eyes begging. He wants out of this room as much as I do.

"Remember how it felt in that house, remember all the guns and dust." I shut my eyes, his words sweeping over me like a caress. "Remember how it felt." And I can see it in my mind's eye. The sparks knitting together and becoming one. The invincible feeling.

"Liz." It comes out of my mouth, not as a word. Or at least not one I recognize but as a deep, guttural, growl. There's a rushing noise throughout the room, and the lights flicker. It looks like something out of a bad horror movie. But my eyes are closed and the second I realize this, they fly open.

"Did you hear that?" I demand breathlessly. "No?" Luke looks at me in concern. He must see the confusion in my eyes because he hastens to explain.

"Nothing happened. You just shut your eyes." I scan the room, and my heart skips a beat.

"Liz?" She smiles, red hair falling around her face. I can tell she's at her true age, the age she died. I'm not living through memory Liz anymore.

"Hey Aria. Long time no see. Nice outfit." She scans my clothes. I look a lot different from the last time she saw me, leather jacket to cover the mark plus a crop top. Clothes I would not be caught dead in at home.

"Ooh Hot guy!" I roll my eyes and try to resist the urge to scream. Liz may be annoying and rude but I still count her as one of my best friends.

"Voila." Luke stares at me in confusion,

"What do you mean?" Of course he can't see her. No one ever can. I was worried I was crazy when I was little for a bit. Now I'm thinking that I am. I'm pretty sure I'm freakin out of my mind. You know, off your rocker. Call the psychiatrist.

"Whatever. You wanted me to summon the dead. Here you go." I jerk my head towards Elizabeth. Who is studying us with far too much interest. Her eyes flicker back and forth between us as if she's watching a very interesting tennis match.

I don't really care about what it means. I am tired and hungry and grumpy. All I want is pizza, possibly candy and sleep. I will worry about this stuff later. I can feel the beginnings of a migraine pounding into my head. It feels like a hammer has started to thud against my skull.

"That's amazing Aria! You know what we could do with this right…" He continues to blab. His excitement is pretty cute but in my state I really couldn't care less.

Black spots are starting to flash against my eyes and Luke's endless drone starts to falter. "Ari!"

"Aria block it!"

"Block the connection Ari!" Two voices are screaming at me but I can't even distinguish who's is who's. Because the black spots are widening and they aren't just black anymore.

Skeletal hands reach out towards me. The room has fallen away and so has my sanity. They moan unintelligible words as they reach towards me. The hands lead to full out human skeletons.

"Leave me alone." I stammer, my voice shakes so much that it's almost impossible to understand me. Empty eye sockets glare at me and that's when I see it. The mark is burned against their bone.

Staining the dirty white surface. The moaning gets louder, Turning to a savage howling. Their hands ever present reach towards me and I run. My heart is pounding as I feel skeletal hands drag me backwards. The empty eye sockets are inches away from my own.

The chant rings in my ears finally translating to English.

"Kill them. Kill them all. Revenge us." Repeating over and over. Burning into my soul. A high scream cuts through the chant. I clap my hands over my ears, hunching over trying to block out the scream. It cuts through, develop into my head. It seems to hurt the skeletons too as they scramble away, fleshed hands pressed to their nonexistent ears as if they hear the piercing noise.

Slowly they are disappearing. Sliding back to whatever hole they came from. The final ones glare back at me through their pain and I hear it snarl, "Revenge the fallen." And then it too is gone and I'm falling, falling.

Falling into darkness. As the high piercing wail cuts off I realize it was me who was screaming.

….

The room swims above me. Colours and shapes blur into one meaningless mass above me. I shut my eyes again, reveling in the complete darkness.

At least my head doesn't hurt anymore. There is a odd stinging feeling on my arms though. "Ari?" Slowly I open my eyes. They adjust to the bright light enough for me to see Luke's face above me. His eyes are filled with concern.

"What happened?" I mutter. My mouth is dry as the Sahara desert. "Here." I feel his arm around me, helping me sit up and a cup of water is pressed to my lips. The water slides down my throat, soothing the dry ache. The stinging pain increases and I glare at my arms in confusion. They're covered by red welts, none too big but many of them.

"You freaked out. One minute you were fine, the next you were screaming at me to make them go away." It comes back in a wave. Liz staring at me. The skeletons.

"Jon has a theory." Jon steps forward from the corner. He looks unreadable but I think I can detect a slight hint of worry in his face. Connor is fully muted, barely even bouncing on his feet.

"I think you reached too far into an ability that you can't fully control yet. And given your special ability, it knocked you out. You have a very strong energy, since you were able to call and control a spirit without having fully unlocked your gift. So basically, spirits with the mark are drawn to you based on the strength of your power. The issue is that the spirits with the mark are pissed off. So they're trying to use you to kill the people that killed them."

Whoah. So dead people want me to kill people. Well to be fair my life was never normal but it's taken a one way street into crazyville.

"So they're trying to use me as a weapon." Jon nods, Connor stares down at the floor and Luke's arm wraps tighter around me. They are acting like someone died.

"Sweet. What's for lunch?" Great now they're all looking at me like I'm crazy. I'm just having the best day…..

"Aria. This is serious. If you can't stop them than you could be putting us and yourself into danger." Jon's voice is strict. Like a parent.

"Look Jon if we don't finish this fight then does it really matter if I'm going insane?" I pause to look at the others expressions. "No. Because I'll be dead and you'll be dead. So for right now, I'll stop them. And we can figure out how to uncrazy me later. Now I am starving and very very annoyed. What time is it?" Luke nudges his watch towards me and my heart almost stops.

"Fuck. I have to get home. Like 3 hours ago!" I scramble off the bed. Bad idea. I almost go down as a wave of dizziness hits me. Luke's arm keeps me standing. "Relax. You don't have to go anywhere."

"Okay clearly you have never met my mother. She will murder me in the most creative way possible if I miss another family dinner."

I've already been here since second period at school. Honestly it's like teachers don't even take attendance anymore. Or its like Jon is hacking into the school system and excusing me from class. Either one I spend most of my days, up till 4 here. Occasionally I can stay longer or I sneak out at night.

"Yes. Or she would if you weren't working at your friends family restaurant for a very very late shift." I shake my head in wonder, laughing.

"You didn't." Luke smirked, looking quite proud of himself. "Oh trust me I did. Which means, that you are ours for about 6 more hours." Yes! I let out a shriek of excitement and throw myself at Luke. I wrap my arms around him in a massive hug. I hate going home. I hate it.

Our family is officially in half of lockdown due to the "dangerous" marked children. So that means everyone's home and everyone's arguing with each other. It's driving me nuts. Plus there's the fact that all anyone wants to talk about is how evil we are.

Surprisingly not my favourite topic.

Any moment I can be at the very uncrowded building with my friends is heaven to me. Plus extra time with my soulfinder/boyfriend. I finally get the appeal of actually having someone who knows you better than you know yourself.

You barely even have to talk to each other. You just understand.

Plus fighting practise and they let me use the cars. Jon taught me how to drive but according to him I suck at it. He claims I speed way too much. I see the speed limits as guidelines more than rules.

"Don't get too excited." I break out into an even bigger smile.

"We've got a job."

"Sweet" Connor and I fist bump. Jon glares at us as if he's about to launch into a lecture about how immature we are. He doesn't have time as We're already tearing down the hall, tripping each other and laughing as we stumble.

"I swear to God they're 4 years old." Jon laments as he follows the three of us.

….

"How the hell are supposed to get in?" The locking system of the house is slightly more sophisticated than we thought. I am shocked that I was allowed to come. Luke and Jon argued against it due to the fact that I passed out earlier that day. Anyways its about 10 at night.

The house in front of us is pitch black. It's occupants, two high ranking Net officials who work with my parents, are out at some party which coincidentally is where everyone else in my household is. I wasn't really supposed to go to the party even if I was coming home.

Apparently it doesn't look very good if the super hero Benedict's bring their little un gifted child with them. Ruins the image of a perfect family. Little blond child with the dark haired 6 foot brothers doesn't exactly look as pleasant as it does when you subtract the girl.

I'm pretty sure that based on what I'm doing now, I have permanently lost the title of Benedict. Connor and Jon are arguing about the lock as Luke and I stand idly by. That is until I notice the half open window on their highest floor.

I jab Luke in the ribs with my elbow and he jumps. "Think I could get through that?" He nods, slowly. That's all the encouragement I need. I duck forward, scanning the wall for possible footholds. There's little to none. At least none I can reach.

"Luke" I hiss. It takes seconds before he's jogging up beside me. "What?" He whispers. "Throw me!"

"No. No way. No. Not happening!" His voice gets a little louder with every no. I shush him frantically.

"Why not?" He looks ready to murder something. Or grab my shoulders and shake some sense into me.

"Because you passed out today!" I shrug my shoulders. "I'm the only one small enough to fit through that without breaking it. Now fricken throw me!" He shakes his head, equally as stubborn as I am. Time to pull out the big guns.

"Please!" I flutter my eyelashes and lean in close, pressing my lips to his neck. "Pretty please." I breathe into his ear, standing on tiptoe to reach it. My hands trail down his chest onto his abs. He let's out a low groan. "You are a highly dangerous girl."

"Is that a Yes?" I whisper against his skin.

"I swear to God you will be the death of me." He sets his hands interlocked on the ground. I set a foot in them tentatively. He starts to lift me up. He makes no obvious signs of protest but I can see the strain on his face. And with one big push, I'm in mid air.

My hands just barely snag the windowsill but it's more than enough. Calling on the training, I pull myself into the room. It's a child's room but I don't linger. I hasten down the plush stairs to let the boy's in.

"Welcome home!" I laugh as they walk in. Because for right now, this house is ours.

…

"That felt almost too easy." It was. I agree with the boy who's side I'm cuddled into. He made me promise to come lie down after that. It wasn't even that hard. Well aside from being tossed in the air like a cheerleader.

But we got in, we took what we wanted and we got out. You could barely tell we were there. And Jon now has a brand new piece of the Empire the play with. We took a memory key loaded with software. Jon wants to use it to manipulate it and make it a virus to shut down the Nets tech.

"Honestly did you see the way you manipulated me out there?" Giggling I stroke his hair out of his eyes.

"I know I'm going to be a very good girlfriend!" He shakes his head, mock despairing.

"What am I going to do with you?"

"Get me pizza and let me sleep." His hand strokes my hair and I relax into his touch. "Your wish is my command." And we lay like that. Just like two teenagers in love. It's nice to pretend sometimes that that's all we are.

Authors Note

Not as many reviews last chapter. Are you guys losing interest?


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Zed, Yves? Breakfast!" I barely turn my head to the side to acknowledge what I'm hearing. My knees are pressed against my chest, my head resting on them.

I've been locked in this position for 8 hours. It's been about a month since I lost control. And I still can't close my eyes without seeing those skeletons.

The only time I can sleep is when I'm with Luke. He relaxes me enough that I can actually go to sleep. So I sneak out most nights. But last night I couldn't. Let's just say that since we broke into the other savent house, security at our house has been tightened even more. New security system that just arrived yesterday equals me not getting out.

It won't take me, correction Jon, long to find a way to break it. But for right now, I'm house bound.

And I hate it. No one talks about anything when I'm around. The conversation just stops. So I hide in my room, all the damn time. I'm getting sick of pacing the floor and reading books.

Slowly, I gather myself up, wincing at the stiffness in my body. The dark circles under my eyes are incredible. Honestly it looks like someone grabbed a sharpie and went to town on my face.

My head feels all light and fluffy like someone took out my brain and filled my head with cotton balls. But it'd still better than sleeping alone. I just can't. All I see is the skeletons reaching out for me. I wake up gasping for breath, paralysis with terror and holding back a scream. The only one who can help me is Luke.

I'm not a very romantic person. I watched The Notebook and didn't shed a tear. Sky bawled.

I thought it was the mark that made me like that but I never really fully saw the appeal of soulfinders. Yeah, Yeah it's one person who can share half your soul but seriously, you literally become obsessed with each other. I always wanted it but that was because it was something I couldn't even imagine having.

But still, lifelong love sounds a little scary. Watching my brothers find their soulfinders was even scarier. They became different people around them. They were being changed and I didn't like it.

I get it now. It's not like you change but you change around them. You act like yourself. You don't pretend to be anything, you're just you.

You stop trying to be what everyone wants you to be and you be yourself instead. And that's amazing. Jon jokes that Luke and I are the weirdest soulfinder couple ever. According to him, it's weird that we don't spend every waking moment together and making out.

If you looked at Zed and Sky, I guess he's right. That's basically their relationship in a nutshell. I really couldn't care less about the PDA side of it.

It's not like I constantly have to show that this boy is mine. I know he is, and that's good enough for me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love kissing.

Like really really love it. Alot. Between the two of us, it's just amazing. The sparks from the first kiss are there everytime we touch. It's just… I can't even think of a word to describe it.

What was I thinking about? Oh, Ok so we also don't kiss in public that much because even though they say it doesn't bother them, I feel guilty kissing in front of Connor and Jon.

They just found out they could actually have soulfinders and now their friends are constantly flaunting their relationship. Sounds like a dick move to me so I'm not going to do that to them.

It's as good as its going to get, I decide, glaring at my reflection. Does my hair need to get knotted this easily? Like seriously. I slide out of my room, slowly. The floorboards can sometimes creak and I don't really feel like forcing my family under the extreme torture of having to talk to me.

Sarcasm everybody.

The stairs are the easy part, it's the front hall that's difficult. It's just so close to every other room in the house, which means that it's easy to disturb other people while you try to find your shoes.

I'm not really sure where I'm going. All I know is that it's Saturday and I refuse to spend any more seconds locked inside. I'll go for a run. Or use the credit card that Jon gave me, where the hell does he get this money?, and go buy food.

That second one actually sounds pretty good, I'm already debating where to go get lunch, when I hear my name coming from the kitchen.

I pause, should I or should I not? Curiosity killed the cat. Screw it. If that saying was actually true than I'd already be dead. I lean right next to the doorway, where I can hear the entire conversation easily.

"Yes Zed. We can't talk about this around the house because of Aria."

"Because she's so quiet and sensitive right." His voice is mocking. I can hear my mother rattling through the cupboards. "Look Zed, we all remember Aria's problems." Will's voice speaks up next. "It's probably better for her if she isn't involved." Mutters of agreement fill the kitchen.

"But it doesn't feel right, keeping it from her like this." Sky says tremulously. "Maybe she is strong enough to take it." My father laughs. Laughs.

"Aria? Strong? That girl is as meek as they come. She barely even looks us in the eye. And she doesn't even have a gift. What can she do to help if she can't even use telekinesis?

When she was younger, she had panic attacks about just everything. Right now, she is fine. She goes to a good school and she can show up at a few Net parties and just stand still and look pretty but Aria is not a part of this family's savent side. You can try to dent it all you want but her involvement with the Net is and will always be limited.

She isn't a true savant or a true part of this family and never will be." I don't even hear anything else.

There a ringing silence in my ears like the aftermath of a bomb. A bomb that just dropped in the kitchen and ripped me apart. I'm useless.

That's just my identity in my family. Quiet, insignificant and pathetic. I have to get out of here. I can't be here, I can't walk into that kitchen and pretend all is OK and dandy. I just can't.

I stumble forward, forgetting to be quiet. I try to grab the keys for Yves truck but I realize something. My hands are balled into fists. My nails have dug into the flesh of my Palm, hard enough to break the skin and send blood spurting up around the wound. My nails are a deep red colour. Leave it, running is the priority now. I grab the keys, pressing it into my skin, hard enough that it digs into the cuts.

There's dead silence in the kitchen. They must of realized that I'm here, I bet they're trying to work out if I heard that. It'll be pretty obvious once the door slams that I'm not happy about something.

I jog down the steps, close to full out sprinting to the car. Officially I've never driven this car. But how hard can it be? I turn the key and it roars to life, Yves is going to kill me. He loves this car, not really sure why because it's kind of ugly but it's all his.

He never let's others drive it. Oops. I hit the gas pedal the second I clear the driveway. Which basically means that by the time my family gets out on the lawn to scream at me, I'm already gone.

….

So currently, I'm probably going 120 in an 80 zone. I haven't been stopped yet but it's only a matter of time.

I'm not sure where I'm going, I just know I don't want to go home. I'm seriously debating crashing the car just for the hell of it. But it sounds a little too petty. After all Yves didn't say anything, my father did. I am not thinking about that. Nope not doing it. No. Not happening.

Think about absolutely anything else. Think about Luke. Think about the good things in your life. Instantly I'm switching gears, sending the car swinging in the opposite direction. I'm driving home. No not where I left.

Not where my family us. They aren't my real family, just like that isn't my real home. My real family is Jon and Connor and Luke. They are my family and despite how messed up we may be, we found each other.

I slam on the brakes once I start into the factories. I swing out of the car, already feeling more relaxed.

Swinging my arms, I skip around the corner. And then stop. And stare in horror. The building is in flames. Hot burning flames that surround it and rip the wood apart, fueling itself with the illusions of safety we had.

The crackle of the flames, oh so comforting and beautiful when it's a quiet campfire, are loud and deafening. It's the noise of everything I love being destroyed. My body is completely numb, I can't feel anything. I barely even see the sirens blaring.

The 5 FBI cars parked around the front. No I don't see those because my eyes are drawn to the figure, handcuffed but still struggling.

The boy with the mark on his forearm, the boy with the spring green eyes. The boy whose eyes meet mine for a fraction of a second.

Just long enough for him to mouth the word "Run" to me.

And numb as I am, as cold as I am, as horribly and terribly selfish I am, I run.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I feel nothing. I feel like ice. My fingers are mechanically going through the motions of operating the truck. I don't know where I'm driving.

I don't know what's happening. I can't think, I can't even scream. I just drive forward. I keep moving. Until I stop the car. And I realize where I am. I'm at the clearing. The one we went to when we found out what we were to each other.

Somehow I made it here. I stumble forward, forgetting that he's been captured. Sure that if I make it through these branches, he'll be there. He'll be in that clearing waiting for me.

Branches whip across my face, carving tiny red lines across it. I don't stop moving, I need to get there. I need to. I stumble on, feet sliding through the mud. I break into the clearing, and I look around. Expecting Luke to be standing there. Waiting for me. But he's not.

And I knew that. I knew he wasn't here, he couldn't be here. Because he's with them. What do the FBI do to people with the mark? It's a stupid question really. One that we all know the answer to. They kill them. And than I lose it. A strangled scream slides out of my throat, my knees buckle like a puppet with cut strings and my fists beat the ground. I can taste the saltiness of my tears, that pour like a waterfall down my cheeks. They can't kill him.

No. I won't allow it. Luke will not die, I'm going to save him. "I will. I will do it." Speaking it loud makes it feel real.

Makes it feel like a binding pact with this place. This place which was one of the only ones that I was ever happy in, I swear on this kind of happiness that I will save him.

Hesitantly, I scramble to my feet, brushing the tears off my cheek. My eyes take in the beauty of this place, the sparkling pond, the white trees, and the thick carpet of flowers. It's a good place.

I don't really want to leave. I feel safe here, like a little bit of Luke's spirit has been absorbed here. I can almost feel his arms around me as we spun in the moonlight. But I know I have to leave.

I have to find Connor and Jon. And we have to make a plan. But first I have to go home, home to my fake home with my fake family. I have to know what's going on and unfortunately, they are my best link to that. I step out of the clearing, and I feel the calm feeling I had, sweep away. Agony sweeps in, instead.

Agony that ribs through every body part and digs its way into my head, whispering "soulfinder, soulfinder." But I have to keep trying. I have to keep moving. So I do. I didn't realize exactly how long it takes to get to the clearing.

Getting there felt like my feet were flying, getting back feels like every foot has 100 pounds of iron shackled to them. It's an effort just to raise my feet. I struggle through it and eventually I get to the car and soon I'm tearing down the highway at the same breakneck speed as last time.

Only this time it's not just petty revenge. I'm on a mission to save my soulfinder and finally make the government understand us.

…. . .

I sneak in. It's cowardly and stupid and such a little kiddish move but I don't need anyone to see me. I can hear their laughter and the clinking of knives and forks drifting through the floorboards.

I figured they'd at least miss the car, I wasn't expecting anyone to go looking for me. I didn't mean to destroy the car. I just forgot to put it into park.

It may or may not have rolled into a river. Ok Fine, I pushed it. Yves is loaded, he can buy another one. A tiny knock on the door spins me out of my thoughts about destroying cars. I must be hearing things. It comes again louder. I'm staring at the door like it's a foreign object.

"Aria?" Sky's timid voice whispers. I sit up, crossing my legs underneath me, glaring at the door. "Ari. I know you're in there. I saw you." She pauses before resuming her quiet whisper.

"No one else knows your here." She must take my silence as an encouraging sign because the door opens. Sky falters at my glare, her pretty face displaying quite a mix of emotions.

I jerk my head towards the door and she shuts it quietly. "How'd you get up here?"

"I'm washing my face." She holds up her hands and makes finger quotation marks around the word as she says it. I snicker at that, Zed will barely let Sky out of his sight. "So, you ok?" She sits down beside me. I want so badly to say yes but I can't. My throat is too tight, I can't get the word out. I shake my head instead.

"Oh Ari… What's wrong?" Sky wraps her arm around my shoulder and I lean on her. I need someone right now and even though she's not the shoulder I want to cry on, I need help.

"Everything in my life is crumbling to pieces" My voice sounds tight. It sounds like I'm trying not to cry, which isn't really working. Sky however stays quiet even as a few rebellious tears slide out of my eyes. "And I just can't fix it. I don't know how." I shut my eyes, closing myself off. I feel hollow like my soul is gone, like I'm just a collection of parts functioning to keep me alive but with no true purpose. "It's like I don't even matter." Saying those words out loud makes me want to cry. Because what the hell have I done that actually matters. Sure we've tried to stop them but we haven't succeeded. I've done nothing to be proud of. I'll just fade into oblivion like all the other savent slaughtered based on this mark.

"Look. I don't know what you think about it but I think everyone in this world was born with a purpose. Your purpose could be to like build the Empire State building or to stop a nuclear war but everyone has one. Soulfinders purpose is to be each other's purpose." Sky's words wash over me like a warm cup of hot chocolate after a long day of skiing.

"You aren't invisible Ari. You matter." I say nothing. She says nothing and we sir like that in comfortable silence. Until my stupid mouth breaks it.

"I broke Yves car." Sky laughs.

"He'll get another one." And we continue to sit in silence. Two people who are total opposites but somehow I would consider Sky my friend.

And I think if two people as odd as us can be friends, anything can happen.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I toss and turn fitfully in my bed. The sheets wrap around my ankles like rope and pillows are flung across the room. It takes forever for my eyes to finally close and drift off into sleep.

And my dreams suck. I'm standing in a rough hallway. It looks like something out if a horror movie. People slowly fade into view, none close enough that I can see their faces.

One person stands facing a group of people. They hold guns, he does not. They take aim, slowly counting down but an explosion rocks them off their feet. Every noise is muted in my ears.

Two people enter the scene dragging the person who was alone with them. And one of the group raises his gun and fires a single shot which should hit the boy's chest perfectly.

It would have, it should have.

Except for the second figure who runs into the path of the bullet. And then they're gone, pulled away by some unknown force, leaving behind a blood stained floor which disappears from underneath me. I'm standing in a mirrored room, Curiosity overwhelms me and I step closer.

A dead girl lies in the mirror. Blood blossoms just over her breast and her eyes are glassy. I can't move my eyes away from her, because she's me.

I'm trapped in the mirror. And the second I realize this, the floor opens up underneath me and I fall.

I

jerk awake, wrapped in sweaty sheets. Oh my god. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream. I stumble out of my bed, tripping over one of my abandoned pillows. I need to see a mirror. I need to. Just to make sure it wasn't real. I almost fall again, but I seize the mirror to stop me from falling. Haggard chocolate brown eyes greet mine, dark circles that are almost black decorate under my eyes.

Colour floods my cheeks, and I relax. I'm alive. It's okay. A buzzing noise shocks me into looking away from my reflection. My phone is ringing.

At 3 in the morning. I lunge for it, praying that it's Jon or Connor or Luke or anybody who can tell me what is happening.

"Hi." Jon's tinny voice comes out of the phone and a sigh of relief escapes me. "What the hell is going on?" My voice is demanding, it's not a request, it's a order.

"Can't talk now. It's not safe. Can we meet up?" Where? The house is destroyed. We had no other safe places. An image of a clearing in the woods sparks to life. "Yeah. Drive west on 180 and take the first right turn. It's in the woods." Jon relays this information to Connor, I'm assuming, and the car engine starts to roar.

"See you there." The call disconnects and I'm already flying out the window. The tree us almost too easy to climb down now. It's not going to take me long to run it, not if I sprint but I better start now.

…

"What the Fuck is happening?" Jon recoiled from my loud scream as he enters the clearing. It's dark enough that the only way I can tell them apart us because Connor's hair still glows a little red.

"They found us. We set off a bomb to destroy anything that could let them catch us. Luke detonated it but they caught him on the way out." Jon's avoiding my eyes. I can tell, he feels guilty for letting Luke be the one to get taken.

I screw my eyes shut, trying to absorb his words. It's wrong it's all wrong. Luke did not get taken, he's going to walk through the glade in a matter of seconds. It's just not possible.

"So how can we help him?" No one says anything.

"We are going to help him right?" Still silence. No. No. They are not doing this. They can't. "How fucking dare you! He would do it for us!" My thought as I reach forward is to grab Jon and hit him until he understands.

"Aria. You don't understand." I finally hit something and my fists fly into it. "Ari. STOP!" Arms wrap around me from behind, pulling me away from. "You're a fucking coward!" I scream.

"Stop." It's Connors voice. Calmer than I've ever heard it before. "Aria. Stop. Luke wouldn't want this. Stop!" With his name, every ounce of fight I have left vanishes. I'm trembling, being held back by Connor.

"I'm so sorry Ari. He's my best friend and if there was anything we could do."

"There's still time!" I beg, tears pooling in my eyes. "No there isn't."

Jon inhales sharply. "The execution is in 5 hours. They're killing him at 9 this morning. We have no weapons, no bombs. Nothing. We can't help him." The tears escape my eyes. 5 hours. No weapons, no way of fighting.

"We can still try." Jon is shaking his head before I've even finished talking. "There's nothing we can do." He repeats and I feel it. They've given up. They don't think we can fight anymore. And they're wrong.

"Yes there is. Promise me this Jon. You and Connor will be there at 9 to get us out of there ok?"

"Aria, what the hell are you going to do?" Jon demands.

"Something. Anything. Do you promise?" My eyes bore into his until he looks away. "I promise."

"Me too." I nod slowly and turn away. "Sorry boys. I've got to cut this short. I have to work out a plan and I have 5 hours to do it in." I start to walk away, before I turn back. "If this goes wrong. I want you to know that I love you guys." Connor wraps his arms around me,

"We love you too Aria." Jon joins the hug. For some reason it feels final. I pull away and wipe my tears off my face.

"Good to know you guys." They walk back to the car and I turn around, breaking into a full out sprint. I love running, it makes you feel like you're flying.

Like nothing could ever catch you. But eventually you have to stop. Something always stops you. You can't run forever. You can't hide forever. There's always a point in time where you have to face your fears and fight.

And that time is right now.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

My feet pace the wooden floor of my bedroom. The house is silent. It's just passed 5 in the morning.

The seconds and minutes are against me, continuing to tick on when I need more time desperately. Help me, I think, help me someone please. I'm 15, almost 16. I can't do this.

I just can't. I'm in too deep, I can't get out and now I'm going to lose my heart. I can't do this without Luke. I know that. I'll snap, and become the very monster the Net fears that I am. Maybe everyone of us does actually have a monster inside them. Maybe we actually are evil but if so, our soulfinders help us control it. We're no more dangerous than a normal savent. We deserve to live. We all do. I hate the Net and I hate this mark. If it weren't for this mark, I could live happily with Luke. We wouldn't be facing this. But would I give it up? If it meant never getting to meet Luke but I could be normal.

Normal.

That word sounds like a dream. Being able to wear tank tops without fear. Being able to actually live. But imagining my life without Luke sends a stab of pain through me. I sound like a heroine in the romance novels.

Ooh I can't live without a man. But I can't. It's true, I'm officially pathetic. We calling each other, push each other to the limits but we can bring them back up. We can almost read each other's minds, we always know how the other feels. Plus we drive each other absolutely crazy. I might only have known him for two months but they were the best of my life.

And then an idea occurred to me. I feel my body collapse on the bed, my head in my hands. It's incredibly simple. Everything falls into place. There's no way that anybody would be able to deny this. But can I do it? Am I brave enough?

The simple answer is yes. Yes I am. A sense of calm floods through my mind. I get up slowly and grab the video camera. I got it for my 13th birthday from Yves. It was a very nice present but I've never really been into film.

So the little camera had gone unused. Until now. I reach forward and set it on the tripod. Reaching out to press the button, the camera light flashes red.

I take a deep breath and I start to talk.

…..

The dark thick iron bars of the cell cast shadows deep into the room. A cot lies untouched in one corner and a dark figure is curled up the corner.

One hand is pressed against his heart, which beats faster as if it knows that it's beats are numbered. He's breathing slowly, all appearances of being asleep except for the gleam of his eyes in the darkness. He can picture the minutes ticking by on a clock.

He's terrified. I don't want to die echoes around his head and unallowed an image of a twirling blonde girl floats to the front of his head. I can't do this to her, I just can't. It's not your decision anymore, a voice mocks him.

He's survived so much. His traitorous first love who has been totally eclipsed by the laughing girl who danced into his heart and took it. The girl who barely even knew who she was, he got to watch as she changed into someone who was confident. Someone who was a fighter.

He knows they won't come for him. She won't be okay with that. Oh she's going to give them hell but Jon will stop her. Jon. His best friend. They were like brothers, had been since they had met up on the streets, Luke as a runaway, Jon who's parents has loved him enough to give him a small fortune.

And then they obviously told him to get lost but they hadn't wanted him dead. He had been envious for a little bit but soon it had faded. Connor came afterwards, his bubbly personality had been just what the two of them had needed. They could get a little too serious at times and Connor had changed that. But Aria had inspired them and completed them.

They were a real team now and Aria had made sure of it. She was the backbone of the team, the one who they all adored. And he was never going to see her again. The lock on the cell jingled.

5 agents strode in. "Time to go."

…. ….

It was freezing. My breath came out in short puffs. I'm standing I'm a rough hallway obscured by a pillar of grey stone. I'm wearing a tank top so that's probably why I'm so cold but I wasn't about to hide my mark.

Not here. Not now. It would be stupid to hide it now. It's 5 minutes to 9. My heart is beating so fast I feel like they can hear it. They should be able to hear it. They're coming, I hear it. I pray that Jon and Connor are here.

We don't risk telepathy. They have a mind reader here. I know they do. If Jon and Connor aren't here, there is no plan. Them the agents turn the corner and there he is. Head drooping forward. But his green eyes still flash with anger. He won't beg or plead. He knows it's useless.

My heart feels like it's being strangled. I want so badly to be able to touch him, to comfort him but I can't. They throw him to the ground and a gun is produced. He pushed himself to his feet, not to run but to die standing.

To die with honor instead of shot hiding like a child. Even though technically he is a child. We all are, yet we are killed like adults. "Any last words." The leader of the agents snarls.

He almost sounds inhuman. Maybe that's just the way I'm picturing them. As the walking dead, maybe that explains why they don't have consciences or hearts. Luke's face curves into an insolent smirk and he spits at the leader.

"So be it." His voice almost seems to hold some kind of twisted joy as he reaches for the trigger. And then an explosion knocks them off balance.

My ears ringing, I stumble forward. I fall towards Luke. "Aria" His voice is music to my ears and out of the corner of my eye I see Jon and Connor rum towards us. They will be too late.

I know it. I press my lips to Luke's, praying the ringing from the explosion will cover the shot. I focus on the feeling of his hands on my face, his lips on mine.

I jerk forward when it hits me, and my mouth floods with blood. The pain is unbelievable, a burning sensation strikes me, starting at my chest and then spreading. But Connors already pulling us with him through space and time.

We land on our feet in the middle of of the clearing. The sun has risen and shines brightly. Birds sing echoes through the emptiness, soon joined by the boy's whoops of elation.

"We did it!" Connor screams and Luke's eyes find mine, glittering with happiness. The elation quickly fades as they glare at me. I can only imagine how pale my face is, hands pressed to my chest.

"Aria?" Luke steps closer to me.

I want to make a big dramatic speech, but I just can't. Their isn't enough air in my lungs. There isn't enough beats for my heart. They stare at me in confusion obviously wondering why I'm being so quiet. After all I've never been thus quiet before. "Best mistake ever." It's all I can do. The 3 words that I'm able to say. It's not enough, it never will be enough. There's so much more that I have to say, have to tell them, have to explain. But thers no more time. The pain is almost unbearable, every nerve in my body screams out. I slowly move my hands away from the wound.

The blood blossoms on my chest, exactly where the bullet tore through me. It hit me. Not Luke, exactly the way I planned it. "No!" I can't feel my legs and I collapse towards Luke like a puppet with cut strings. I feel myself being lowered towards the ground but the pain is starting to out way every other sensation.

But I can feel Luke's hand sweeping through my hair. I can see his glittering green eyes.

He's not going to lie and say I'll be fine. He knows I won't. Jon is screaming out for something to stop the bleeding. Connor stares at me in horror. I reach a shaking blood stained hand out to Luke's face, trying to wipe way the tears. I don't want him to cry. He shouldn't cry.

"Please stay with me" he begs, but the look in his eyes prove that he isn't that naive. He knows that there is no chance of that. He knows I'm gone.

And as I feel a black curtain being drawn over me, I fall, my last though being of a boy with green eyes and an angel face, begging me to stay.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Authors Note

So this chapter may be a little confusing. It's a mixture of what's happening in the present, the aftermath of Aria's death, those parts will be in normal. It will also have the future she would of had if she hadn't died and that has a amount of time in front of it.

"No. Aria!" The blonde boy screams. The other two sit back, eyes wide with horror. In their midst is a blonde girl, her face streaked with blood. She is unmoving,her face pale, and her chest has stopped moving. "Help her!" He demands glaring at the other two, cradling her in his arms. "Luke." The dark haired boy extends his hand to his friend.

"Luke she's gone." He knows. You can see it in his face but he refuses to admit it. He pulls her closer, not letting her go. "Luke!" The redhead is in shock, he stares weakly at her body as if it isn't even there. "I know Jon." His voice breaks as he stares at his other half. The girl that completed him. The girl who took the bullet for him. He knows but he can't let her go.

And somewhere else in the world the school bells are ringing but one seat goes unfilled, in a junior math class where everybody whispers curiously about the whereabouts of Aria Benedict.

…

5 years later

"Will you marry me?"

"Good job Bro, now actually try asking her." He shoots a glare into the phone. "C'mon Jon. I want it to be perfect."

"Dude I think you can say 4 words." He rolls his eyes. "Seriously what do you think she's going to do?"

"I don't know. It's Aria. She could punch me or get her gun or laugh or…" Jon laughs, "You're being stupid. You love her. She loves you for some reason." He stifled a laugh before staring at the opening door. "Gotta go!"

"Good luck!" He hangs up the phone just ad Aria stumbles through the door. Her cheeks are pink from the cold, her eyes glowing. "Oh my god it's freezing out there!" Promptly she drops everything she's holding and skips into the kitchen. It's now or never he thinks and he drops to one knee.

"Like I get that it's winter but seriously." Her voice dies off as she enters the room and sees him. Her hands jump to her mouth. "I love you so much Aria. Will you marry me?" Her eyes are shining. "Of course I will you stupid loser."

….. …..

Three boys are digging. The forest is otherwise silent, aside from the scraping of their shovels. Dirt lies in piles all around the hole and a wooden coffin lays beside the dirt. They climb up, still absolutely silent as they work together to place the coffin into the ground.

Mechanically they begin to cover it in dirt like if they keep working, it won't hurt anymore. Like if they keep moving, they can pretend that she isn't gone.

. …

"Luke." He lifts his head. It feels so so heavy and his eyes are rimmed with red. "I killed her Jon. It's all my fault." Jon is shaking his head before the words are even out of his mouth.

"No, Luke…"

"She took the bullet for me." It makes him want to cry again, so he looks away, trying to get rid of the Burning behind his eyes. "Luke." Jon's voice is softer, "She made a video." "What?"

"She made a video," Jon repeats "Like a goodbye video. She talks about all of us. You can't watch it and not be on our side." It hits him like a truck. She predicted it, well of course she did. She talked to the dead, of course she was aware that her own breaths were numbered.

The video. She made it for them sure but she also made it for the others. She made it as one last play, using her death to create sympathy which would lead to anger towards the Net. It could change everything. "It's genius really. If we knew who her family was, we could talk to them and get them to fight with us." Jon continues to talk and it's obvious what he's doing. Throwing himself into the plan so he doesn't think about Aria.

"The Benedict's." That's cuts him off. "You mean the big influential savent family who basically call the shots at the Net?" Luke nods his head

, "Aria Lauren Benedict." "Well now this makes sense." Jon presses a piece of torn notebook paper into his hand. Scribbled on it, in Aria's handwriting was three words, Make it hurt.

"She came through for us one last time didn't she?" A slow smile spreads over his face, "Yeah she did."

…..

6 years later

The first glade is covered in flowers, some real, some fake. Only a few people gathered in the woods, the couple had preferred to keep it family and close friends only.

And no one could deny how radiant the bride was, in a simple white dress. The groom couldn't keep his eyes off her and it was easy to see exactly how this couple had stayed together this long. They were completely and totally in love. The first people to reach the newlyweds were two boys who sprinted up to embrace the other two, laughing about how cheesy the ceremony was, relentlessly mocking them both.

They were family and that would never change.

…. . ….

Sky's POV

"Zed, come on!" I scream at him. Everybody else is gathered in the living room, watching a movie. We're just waiting on him. "Here" he slides so he's sitting beside me and I lean my head onto his shoulder.

"Play it Yves!" Yves reaches over and grabs the remote from the coffee table and points it at the TV. Which instantly went black. "Nice going Yves." Zed snickered. "I didn't do that", Yves protested. Suddenly the TV lights started to flicker before turning on. Every bit of laughter died off. "Hello, houses of savants and the Net of course."

It's a male's voice issuing smoothly from our TV. "If we could trouble you for just a little bit if your time, we'd really love to share some information with you. It will be most illuminating, I hope you enjoy!" "What the.." Yves broke off, looking quickly at Karla. The screen changes, turning onto a view of a room.

A room that I recognize. Because it's Arias bedroom and Aria is sitting on the floor, cross-legged, staring at the Camera. "I'm not sure if this is on. I'm not really sure how to tell, honestly this is the first time I've used it." She laughs

, "Sorry you won't get the irony yet. First time I'm using it, yet the last time for everything else." I lean forward in confusion. Aria's upstairs? I thought she went out for a sleepover.

"Okay, first thing you need to know, I'm Aria Lauren Benedict and I'm 15, basically 16 years old. Some of you may know me, the quiet one who trailed behind her older brother's and said very little. Yeah that's me. I suppose if I'm going to tell this the right way, I have to start at the beginning. So here it is, the story of my life.

Trust me it's not boring. Very much so the opposite. So let's begin, grab your popcorn everybody."

My eyes are riveted to the screen, I can't look away. "From the beginning, I was always a little bit of a disappointment. My mother had 7 perfect sons, all outgoing and popular and generally intelligent. I'm reserving judgement on Zed."

Zed let's out a snort of laughter. "Also gifted tended to be a major way of describing our family. Anyway, by those standards I was far below perfect.

Heck, I didn't even make average. As far as my family knew, I wasn't gifted. I didn't look the same, I didn't act the same. Don't get me wrong, I love my family but I wasn't what my mother wanted.

So I was more than happy to fade into the background. Become the odd Benedict who nobody ever remembered but would always pretend too and make some comment like, Oh Aria, she's such a lovely girl. All totally faked but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that as I grew this divide spread until we were basically on different continents."

I'm not sure if any of us want to hear Aria anymore. Karla is crying, and I saw Saul wipe away a tear. The rough part is absolutely everything Aria said was true. And even though we didn't want to hear anymore, we couldn't turn away. "So you might wonder, why did a girl who supposedly loved her family, allow such a gap to grow?

Well it was because of my family that I let it happen. You see, as I discovered when I was 10, I was no average savent." Aria pulls at the grey hoodie she was wearing, unzipping it to reveal a black tank top.

She casually threw the hoodie off and twisted.

Burned on her shoulder was a black mark about the size of my fist. "I was marked for death. So that's probably quite a surprise to a lot of you, after all,

Daughter of a government worker. Just a little too ironic, don't you think? Yet it happened to me. So I did what any rational child would have, I hid it.

Pretty damn well, I would say." Tears are collecting in my eyes now. All I can think of is how white her face was when Saul talked about the mark.

I thought it was fear of them, I realize now it was fear of us. "So here I was. Little marked child. All I wanted to do was live for as long as I could. I thought I was evil, see? But fortunately enough, I walked down the right alley way one day.

And I walked straight into other people like me. Except these people knew the truth. We're not evil. We never were. Our tempers rum a little high, wait that's just me. But anyways, we are nothing to be scared of. And that's all we've ever wanted to prove. So I started to work with these boys, I'd skip school and sneak out at nights." She pauses here,

"Sorry Mom and Dad but seriously if you didn't want me to sneak out, you should not have built my window so close to a tree." I laugh a little at that. It sounds like something Zed would say.

"So yeah, I did bad things but we have. Did that make me so bad that I needed to be killed? I'm pretty sure it didn't or else we would be murdering thousands of teenagers each years." Like all of your older brothers. "And when I was with them, I could finally be myself.

Not someone who hid. Someone who fought. And I found my soulfinder." My mouth dropped open. "They aren't supposed to.." Victor started but Aria was already talking.

"Yeah, Yeah we aren't supposed to have them. But we do. So in all honesty, how different are we from you?" Not at all. "Exactly." It's like Aria can hear our thoughts.

"So why is it, when we've already decided that there is little to no difference between us, everybody in my house is asleep and I have 4 hours and 13 minutes to save my soulfinder from being shot due to this mark." Victor face goes pale, "No" he mutters. Her face is grave, she's not lying."Victor what's wrong?" Karla sniffles. "The boy, the boy we were going to shoot. They took him. But one of them got shot." Victor face was dead pale.

And it takes a while but we finally understand what he's implying. "How do you know?" Zed asks quickly. "Because I fired the last bullet."

Silence spreads over the room, and we all turn to the screen, begging Aria to tell us that we're wrong.

"Not fair is it. Well at least I've got a plan. I just have one last thing to say. My deepest fear isn't death. It's dying without being anything. A friend. A family. A girlfriend. Just dying with nothing.

Dying like the thousands of others with this mark, completely anymonous and meaning nothing.

But I'm not going to die like that. I means something to my soulfinder and to my friends. They're like family to me and that will never change. But what can is the way the world treats us. Than maybe no one else would have to die. We could live together peacefully."

She pauses, as if searching for a word. Tears flood down my cheeks. She's captivating to watch.

"Don't let anyone else die. Stop it now. Let the marked one walk among you as friends. Because imagine that I'm your daughter, your sister, your soulfinder, your friend." She gets up and walks over to her bed. She lies a piece of paper on it before walking back over to the camera.

"I'm not coming home, you know?" She says casually and my heart stops.

"No. By the time you watch this, I'll be long dead. Because they won't take my soulfinder away from me. No, I guess I'm the one leaving."

Will's half out of his seat like he can beg her not to walk out that door. "I'm not scared. Honestly I've had about 3 hours to get used to the idea and I'm feeling pretty okay right now.

I'm trusting you people. Don't let anyone else die like me. Because fighting for this, it wasn't a mistake even though it cost me my life. But if you want to call it a mistake, let's call it the best mistake I ever made."

She reaches out and the camera shuts off. We're still glued to the TV as music starts to play and pictures flash by.

Pictures of everyone else dead because of this mark. It must be at least a thousand, but we watch each one. And than the final image comes up on the screen. Aria. It's a beautiful picture, she's mid laugh, balanced on a couch arm.

Her eyes sparkle like she's looking at someone who she truly loves. And than the screen goes black.

Will erupts out of his seat, running upstairs. I know what's he's going to do. He's clinging on to the desperate hope that Aria is up there. In her room, safe and sound. I follow him, I just need to see it. It looks the same as it was when I comforted her two nights ago.

Except there's an abandoned tripod and a piece of notebook paper ofln the bed. Will's crying so hard that he can't even read it. I feel suprisingly composed, I grab the paper. Written in Aria's hand is one word. "Sorry." And that's all it takes for me to breakdown, standing in the bedroom of the girl I considered to be a sister.

The bedroom of the girl I knew nothing about.

…..

17 years later

"Mommy, Mommy look at what I found." The little girl with the sea green eyes, waved a leaf.

"Beautiful honey." The girl, a girl no longer, smiles up at her husband. The newest child, a young boy sits on her knees and giggles watching his older sister.

It's perfect. A perfect family scene, exactly what the two who have triumphed through so much together, deserve

….

Sky's POV

I'm shaking as I stand with Zed. We're about to meet the 3 boys who Aria considered family, among them her soulfinder.

The Net has already begun changing the laws. That was after savants started to riot in the streets, all in protest of Aria's death. Victor says now the Net is using Aria as a symbol for their new beginning. Honestly, I think they're just jumping on the bandwagon but as long as the laws are changed.

Victor pauses before opening the door and we all enter. I'm not sure what we were expecting but it wasn't this. We were expecting some kind of triumph but all we feel in this room is grief. Two, obviously older boys are sitting on the couch. They at least look up when we enter, and offer weak smiles.

"Hi. I'm Jon."

"Connor." But my eyes are drawn to the one who's just lifting his head now. Visibly he is not the youngest and he still tops 6 feet but there's a sort of vulnerability to his face. And I know, that this is Aria's soulfinder.

And any last hope that I have that the video was fake is destroyed and I look at his face. Because it's the picture of despair. And I don't even stop by the other boys. I walk straight over to this boy, and I give him a hug.

Because he needs it. He needs it more than we do.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

3 years later

"Isn't there anything else we can give him?" The petite dark haired woman's voice gets shriller due to panic.

"Yeah Karla, there are a million other things we could give him. But all that's going to do is prolong this. This war but the other side is winning. They're winning because he hasn't even picked up a weapon. He's done fighting Karla." The woman tosses her hair,

"You don't know that!" "Yes I do." Jon's voice is calm and decisive. He stands with his new wife who puts a relaxing hand on Karla shoulder.

"Karla, he's done fighting. He doesn't want new drugs that may give him another year. He doesn't want to slowly waste away. He wants Aria. That's all he's ever wanted. All he's ever fought for. The only reason he's stuck around this long was to see the Net changed, to see exactly what Aria dreamed for come to life. Now we have to let him go." All the fight goes out of the woman with that name.

Sydney wraps an arm around her shoulders. "We should go back in." The three of them turn into the hospital room that has become Luke's permanent residence for the last 6 months. It had been fast, a sudden onset of cancer. Luke had a tumor in his brain and it was spreading. Fast. He smiled weakly at them from the hospital bed.

Connor sat playing cards with him. Jon had found his soulfinder and gotten married last April. Connor was dating his soulfinder but as the boy's always joked, he had yet to put a ring on her finger.

Luke had lived with the Benedict's before he got sick and finished high school. He and Sky and Will were very close. Even when Luke got sick, he had always been positive about it.

Never complaining, always cracking jokes about being sick. He admitted to Connor one quiet day that he hated it there. He said it just him feel like he was a burden to everyone else.

He just wanted to see Aria again. Karla had basically adopted him as another child and was now fluffing his pillows, worriedly. "You look skinny." Luke rolled his eyes but was ever polite.

"Not eating food kinda goes with the whole cancer thing." Okay maybe he was getting less polite. Jon laughed but instantly quelled under Karla harsh glare. Sydney smiled at Luke and Connor.

"Good morning." Luke nodded at her. He did look worse, Jon realized. He looked incredibly skinny and just tired.

"We can't stay long but we wanted to say hi before we left." Luke smiled quite cheerfully. Luke and Connor soon erupted into an argument about cards and Sydney laughed at them.

Sky and Karla fussed over Luke until they all had to go. It had been such a quiet say, such a normal day. But he had seen it in his best friends eyes. Seen the way they didn't gleam anymore.

So when the call came in the morning, he was half expecting it. The doctor's grave face as they told them that Luke had passed away on his sleep last night. It wasn't fair, he thought, it wasn't fair at all. The two best people I knew, died way too soon. It just wasn't fucking fair. It hurt like hell, knowing that two if his best friends in the world were gone.

Sky was sobbing, her arms clutched tightly around Zed. Tears ran down Sydney's face quietly and he wrapped his arm around her. But he needed to see him. Glancing down at Sydney, he knew that she knew what he had to do. "Go." And he and Connor made their way silently, as silent as they had been when Aria had died, to Luke's room. There was only two of them left now, two our of four.

Hesitantly, he pushed open the door. He wasn't there. Jon knew that they would have moved him. He also knew this wasn't his friends final resting place, or even somewhere that meant a lot to him but somehow he thought that there might be something there. Something that could show that Luke was happy. That he'd moved on, at peace.

There was a knock at the door and they both looked up. It was one of the older doctors, Luke had liked this one. They always joked together.

"Sorry about your friend." Jon nodded his head. He didn't really think he could do more than that without his grief opening up swallowing him whole.

"Yes very sorry. He was a good young man. Now I saw something very odd last night." The man nodded his head gravely at their confusion.

"Yes, very odd. You see I was the one that found him. I just knew that something wasn't right. So I walked over to the room. And I heard voices, Oh yes!" Jon and Connor shot each other a look. This guy was nuts.

"It was his voice. And a girls. Now you see when I opened that door, I sure as hell didn't expect to see what I saw." "What? What did you see?" Jon didn't mean to be impatient but he truly didn't care about what the old man was saying.

Instead of getting upset, the man smiled wisely at him. "I saw the young man who was lying in this very bed a day ago. But I also saw a very pretty blonde girl.

Now you two wouldn't know anything about that would you?" Jon's heart let to his throat. It couldn't be.

"People always say there is no feelings or any kind of bond stronger than death. But sometimes I wonder if once in a lifetime there us a bond strong enough to keep a person around, just long enough for them to be reunited."

He stopped and his eyes twinkled at them, "But who cares what I wonder? I'm just a crazy old man. But hmm sometimes I do wonder." He strolled out of the room, humming to himself quietly. Jons throat felt raw. "She waited for him."

A slow smile spreads itself across his face, "I knew she would." Tears still fill his eyes because they're gone but he knows that this is how it was meant to be.

And as long as Aria and Luke are together, life is exactly how it's supposed to be.

…

Luke's POV

I'm not sleeping. I should be but I'm not. It's almost 9. It may be 9 at night but it's always the same. At 9, the exact time she died, I always feel closer to her. I feel like she's there, even if that's impossible. I watch the minutes slowly tick by.

Waiting as always for the minute I can tell her I'm sorry, tell her I love her again. With her gone, there's nothing left to fight for and no matter how wrong it feels, I've given up. Her family took me in but even that was painful for me.

Her mother looks so much like her and you can see little bits of her personality in her brothers. Her sense of humour in Will, her intelligence in Yves and her Fight in Zed. It was like dying a million tiny deaths each day. Each time I realized she wouldn't come skipping towards me.

Each time that she wasn't just around the corner. And than I got sick and I knew something was wrong. More wrong than the tumor in my brain. I wasn't fighting anymore and the even sadder realization was, was that I was okay with that. I shut my eyes as the clock switches to 9, wishing that maybe just this once, she'll be here. And she's not.

Of course she's not. It was stupid to even hope. "Sup?" It's a simple question, could have been from any of the nurses, but I know that voice. I haven't heard it in 3 years but still I know it.

"Aria?" And she's standing there, in the same clothes, same smirk on her pretty face. She's just a breath taking ad I remember, delicate but some how so so strong. She's the perfect everything, her deep chocolate eyes stare at mine, the exact same longing reflected from my eyes to hers.

She's finally here. After years of praying and waiting, she finally came home."Really? 3 years and all you can say is Sup?" She laughs, the most beautiful sound I have ever heard, I feel like my face is about to split from how wide my smile is. I swing my legs out and clambered to my feet. I don't feel weak anymore, I feel as strong as I did years ago.

I rush towards her and wrap my arms around her, feeling her warmth flood through me. "I love you." I whisper against her skin. "I love you too." She murmurs back to me.

And then she reaches up to me, bringing my lips down to hers. It's our first kiss for 3 years and it's total fireworks. My hands move to cup her face and one buries itself in her soft hair. It's not a sweet soft kiss, no it most definitely isn't. But it's so us. It's passionate and hot and burning but it's perfect for us.

We were never the sweet relationship, we were fire and dynamite when it exploded. We finally break apart but I keep her clutched close, tightly wrapped around me. I place a kiss on the top of her head. She's my rock, she's always been my rock. I can feel the broken parts of my heart of my soul mending just as I hold her.

"You're here." I breathe, "You waited for me." She looks me dead in my eyes, "I would have waited a thousand years." She's dead serious, I can tell and all I can think about is how much I've missed her and how much I love her. And than I ask the question that's been bugging me,

"Am I dead?" She nods slowly, staring at me. I feel a flood of guilt, I'm leaving them alone. But overwhelming it is the strange sense of joy. I'm happy.

So so happy. Because that means I'm staying with her. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I was ready to die for you Aria. But that doesn't mean I was ready to stay alive alone." She smiles up at me, her eyes watery. "I'm so sorry." "Let's go." I gentle wrap her under my arm and pull her forward. I'm not sure at this point whether we're going on.

But I know that as long as we're together, we'll be fine. We didn't get to have our perfect Hollywood ending but it's ok. We had a pretty messed up relationship, it's only right that our ending gets a little messed up as well.

Rules are made to be broken and I'm pretty sure we demolished every single rule we saw. We changed the world and that's always going to be what we leave behind. Because whatever happens, we belong together and that's how it's always going to stay.

We were each other's best mistake. For worse or for better, in sickness and in health.

Till death do us part.

The End


	21. Authors note

Authors Note

Hi guys

It's been awhile since I basically finished the story and I've actually really missed writing. So I have two options for anyone who wants to read more about the mark or Luke and Aria. So option number one is a story that begins roughly after Aria's death. It involves Will's soulfinder who was a minor character in Devil's and Angels. Option number two is an alternate ending to Devil's and Angels which comes out quite differently. So I'd love to know if you guys think either one would be interesting to read. If I do write either one or both, I would live the same amount of support that I got on Devil's and Angels. You guys are awesome.


	22. Chapter 16 new

Note

Sorry that it took so long for this to come out. I just finished off my exams! First semester is done! So I have a lot more time to spend on this story. I'm going to do an alternate ending. It picks up from the end of Chapter 16 with a few differences. Aria just stole Yves car and drove around for a couple hours then went home. She didn't go see anyone… nothing like that.

Also I don't know how many if you have heard but there are Finding Sky Fanfiction awards this year. I think that it's a great idea and that the organizer has done a fantastic job. If you guys feel this story deserves anything I would love for you to nominate it. I know there are lots of great stories out there and this seems like a great idea to honor some of them.

Anyway… I'm done talking. On to the story!

…

Chapter 16

The cool metal of the car keys dig into my hand, leaving its outline in bright red against my skin. The grey sweater I'm wearing hangs off my frame, weighing me down.

It's pouring outside, not the slow droplets of rain that look like tears, but hard, driving sheets of rain that cut through you and chill you to the bone. My boots click against the wet stone driveway. I really don't want to walk in there. I really really really don't want too. I wonder how much hotels cost. Probably more than what I've got in my pockets. I need my wallet.

Which is of course inside the house in my other jacket. Yay. Slowly I grab the door handle, trying to force myself to actually turn it. It's harder than it sounds, my hands are so cold and numb that it takes me way longer than it should. I finally master the doorbell.

Oh my god that sounded so wrong to say, I swear to god I'm not an idiot. I know how doorknobs work.

A blast of warm air hits me as I step into the room. It feels amazing, epically after the freezing cold rain. Plus Yves really needs to get his heaters checked out because there is something wrong with them.

Just saying. Or maybe I just suck at figuring out how to work cars. Trust me it's not from a lack of trying, I pressed every fricken button in that car trying to get the damn heat on.

But even as I debate whether to change or not, something occurs to me. The house is silent. This house is never silent. Not unless it's 2 in the morning. I check my watch.

Nope, not 2 I'm the morning. It's 10 at night. Xav and Zed should be in the middle of an argument about who gets the TV remote. The house shouldn't not be silent. This is so wrong, the last time the house was silent was. ….

Oh. I get it. The last time our house was this silent was the last time Zed got suspended, he punched a guy in the face for making some gross comment about Sky. Add that to Zeds previous record and he was suspended for 5 days.

Mom and Dad yelled at him for 5 straight hours and we all hid in our rooms. Now it's my turn to have some quality time with the parents. My favourite. May as well get it over with.. Mom only builds up steam if you leave her alone. I let out a deep sigh and turn away from the stairs, into the kitchen. My hair is dripping onto the carpet but I don't really care.

And sure enough, mother and father are waiting at the table with equally as serious expressions on their faces. What's a good icebreaker for this type of situation? "Who died?" My mother's scowl deepens. Obviously I picked the wrong one.

"Aria. That was incredibly irresponsible, running off like that. You could have damaged the car." My father's voice is calm for now, but I can hear the storm brewing underneath.

"Ouch." I walk over and grab a soda. I just want to do something with my hands. "Not worried about me are we? Just golden boys car." I regret the words, the second they leave my mouth. My mother's face is bright red and even my father seems to have reached his boiling point.

"What are these Aria?" he demands, pushing a piece of paper towards me. It's my attendance record from school. I've skipped almost every single class, every single day.

"I don't recall giving you permission for any of these outings. I don't remember a dentist appointment yesterday." I knew it couldn't last forever. I couldn't keep missing class. But I kept putting off finding an excuse. I have nothing to say to my parents.

"This is unacceptable. Telling us that you're in school while you're off doing god knows what with God knows who. What is wrong with you Aria? The other boys never skipped school as much as this and they didn't lie to us half ad much ad you have. Out with it right now young lady, where have you been?"

I lick my lips, trying to force some feeling back into my dry throat.

"I…. I" Mom gets into it now, anger flashing in her dark eyes, the exact shade as mine."You won't even tell us will you? After everything that we've done for you. Everything we've sacrificed for you. Every opportunity that you've had. Why would you do this to us? Why would you lie?" A hysterical laugh bubbles up. But it's not funny, it's so not funny.

"Everything we've done for you. That's a good one."

"Don't you dare take that tone with your mother."

And that it. I just snap, I'm so done. "Right because I have to be quiet. I have to be the nice one. The sweet one. The one nobody notices." My voice is sharp enough to cut barbed wire and my parents shocked faces burn into the back of my eyes. I've never spoken to them like this. Ever.

"Sit down Aria. Be quiet Aria. Stay home Aria. And that's still not enough for you. Because then it's why are you so quiet? Why don't you want to talk to us? Look us in the eye when you're speaking to us Aria!" Every single pent up emotion of guilt and fear and Anger engulfs me.

Every single little hint of resentment over all these years surges back to life, adding fuel to the fire.

"I have never been what you wanted. You wanted another talented little perky cheerleader daughter that you could put through ballet classes and she could be the most beautiful and important person at school. You wanted another trophy child, someone who you could treat like a princess and I'm so sorry that you got me." Tears burn their way to my eyes and sear my cheeks on their way down.

"But this is who I am and sure as hell didn't help me when you ignored me. When you shafted me to the side trying to keep your special sons in the spotlight and ignore the daughter. You didn't want me… you never did."

"Shut up!" My father has had enough. My mother is crying and it's all my fault. But I don't feel anything. Everything is just coming out, the hurt, the fear and the anger. I feel empty, like I've lost a major organ. But I can't stop talking.

"You never wanted me. I was the disappointment. Don't even try to hide it. Don't try to hide behind the successful sons and pretend that you are parents of the year because I see the filthy ugly truth, that you were always trying to keep me hidden. The Proud Benedict's and their sons, please." I scoff, my eyes glaring into my Dad's.

His face is beyond fury. And I can't stop talking. Why can't I stop talking? "You know as well as I do that it's a fucking show and for some reason people are stupid enough to believe it. You are just a little savant who's good at sensing danger and his trophy soulfinder." Pain flares up on the left side of my face.

It burns and my hands instinctively fly up to shield it. But where did it come from? What's the source of the pain? I'm slow. My brain barely even recognizes the scene around me.

The look on my mother's face, the horror in my father's eyes. The only thing I see is my father's hand in the air from where it has just slapped me. Hard. I screw my eyes shut stopping the tears that threaten to flood out. What do I do?

Memories replay in my head, my father reading me a story, my father picking me up from ballet with a proud smile on his face, my father holding my hand to cross the street. The Memories from back before the mark. Before I was too scared to do anything.

All these years, I've been scared of what the mark could do to me. Scared of the Net, scared of my own shadow. But I was never afraid of my father. It never truly kicked in that, if I was killed, he could be the one that shot the bullet. I thought about it sure but it never hit me.

But now staring at my father, with my cheek on fire, it hits me. I am terrified of this man in front of me. "Oh my god." It finally registers. My brothers are here too. Yves looks scared, Xav stretches out his hand to heal me and Will tries to comfort me.

They are not people I trust. I can't trust any of them.

My brain is screaming at me, my heart is screaming at me. And for once, they are screaming in perfect harmony. I can't even remember making a actual decision. One minute, I'm standing.

The next I'm running. The sheets of rain soak me again and send a new kind of icy chill through my bones.

The chill from inside is spreading too and I feel cold. So cold. I can feel them screaming after me.

But I don't hear it. All I hear are the crashing sounds of the rain throwing itself against the house and the wail of the wind. And the voices in my head, whispering to me. Imploring me to kill.

To go back and make them pay. Pay for hurting us and for a moment I falter. But I run on. I don't know where I'm going but I have to keep running because if I lose this feeling, no matter how small it is, I think I'll collapse.

And I won't get back up. The Burning in my lungs and legs are the only little pinpoints breaking through the fog inside my head. I've never felt like this.

All I can do is focus on the pain. I trip and go flying, head over heels. I end up at the base of a tree. The rain pelts down with just as much enthusiasm as before but I barely notice the cold.

My cheek still feels like it burns but the rest of my body is a tingly kind of warm. Logically, I know that's not good. I listen Xav occasionally and it's basically not a good idea to stay cold.

Of course when have I ever listened to the smart thing that my brain is telling me to do? I walked down that alleyway. I walked into that building. I kissed Luke. I kept talking. I'm a idiot.

Luke. I want him right now. Now. But I don't have any stench to move. I'm paralyzed, frozen to this spot. I don't know how long, I sit.

Thinking nothing. Feeling nothing. "Ari?" Hands that are so warm that they burn against my skin are thawing me. Slowly my eyes crack open, meeting the bright green eyes that I know so well.

"Luke." I breathe out.

"God Ari you're freezing." And I'm pressed to something so very warm that I can't help but push my hands against it.

We start to move, in a slow rocking rhythm. "Where are we going?" My eyes feel like steel blocks. I have to fight to keep them open, so I barely catch his answer.

"Home."


	23. Rewrite?

Hi everybody

I know it's been a while since I'veuploaded anything. I recently re read this story and there are regionally some parts that I think I could do better. This was the first story I've ever finished and I was wondering if I retire it, would anybody be interested? I have the prologue written and it will go into deeper detail. This story had multiple different endings and scenes and this new version will use those so it will definitely be a changed story. Don't worry, you'll still have the same characters though. Let me know if this is something that you want to read.


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